Conversion of corn stalk into furfural using a novel heterogeneous strong acid catalyst in gamma-valerolactone

A novel solid acid catalyst was prepared by the copolymerization of p-toluenesulfonic acid and paraformaldehyde and then characterized by FT-IR, TG/DTG, HRTEM and N-2-BET. Furfural was successfully produced by the dehydration of xylose and xylan using the novel catalyst in gamma-valerolactone. This investigation focused on effects of various reaction conditions including solvent, acid catalyst, reaction temperature, residence time, water concentration, xylose loading and catalyst dosage on the dehydration of xylose to furfural. It was found that the solid catalyst displayed extremely high activity for furfural production. 80.4% furfural yield with 98.8% xylose conversion was achieved at 170 degrees C for 10 min. The catalyst could be recycled at least five times without significant loss of activity. Furthermore, 83.5% furfural yield and 19.5% HMF yield were obtained from raw corn stalk under more severe conditions (190 degrees C for 100 min). (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved