Fast and continuous conversion of xylose to furfural in micropacked bed reactors

In this work, the continuous conversion of xylose to furfural in water aqueous based on micropacked bed reactors (lPBRs) with mixed solid acid catalyst of SO24/g-Al2O3 and HND-580 was studied. For liquidsolid process, the best conversion and yield were 96.86% and 44.65% with the reaction time of only 1.6 min at 170 degrees C and 2 MPa, respectively. The reaction rate constant, apparent activation energy, and space-time yield (STY) were 1.37 min(-1), 47.41 kJ.mol(-1), and 5.00 x 10(-3) g.mL(-3).min(-1), respectively. Also, the CO2 can enhance the conversion of xylose to furfural in mPBRs to achieve a high selectively and yield. Compared with the batch operation, the mPBRs can greatly increase the reaction rate and STY of 1-3 order magnitude. Micropacked bed reactor could be an alternative of the batch reactor to achieve a high efficient, green, continuous, and safe dehydration process of biomass. (C) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.