Furfural production by 'acidic steam stripping' of lignocellulose.

Furfural and acetic acid are produced with approximately 60 and 90 mol % yield, respectively, upon stripping bagasse with a gaseous stream of HCl/steam and condensing the effluent to water/furfural/acetic acid. The reaction kinetics is 1(st)  order in furfural and 0.5(th)  order in HCl.

Conversion of furfuryl alcohol into ethyl levulinate using solid acid catalysts.

Furfural, a potential coproduct of levulinic acid, can be converted into levulinic acid via hydrogenation to furfuryl alcohol and subsequent ethanolysis to ethyl levulinate. The ethanolysis reaction is known to proceed in the presence of H(2)SO(4). We show here that several strongly acidic resins are comparably effective catalysts for this reaction.

Towards 'bio-based' Nylon: conversion of gamma-valerolactone to methyl pentenoate under catalytic distillation conditions.

Methyl pentenoate, a promising Nylon intermediate, is produced in >95% yield via the transesterification of gamma-valerolactone, a bio-based intermediate, under catalytic distillation conditions.