Extraction of Furfural (C5H4O2) from Waste Bagasse of Agricultural Source

Abstract

Furfural is an important liquid organic chemical having yellow oily nature with smell of almonds manufactured from Agro industrial wastes & residues containing carbohydrates known as pentosans and is used in refining of lubricating oils, petroleum, and diesel fuel. The raw material for the production of furfural was bagasse and chemicals such as H2SO4, water and NaCl. Bagasse is a waste product from sugar industry which is good source of pentosan with 25 to 27%. The main objective of the present study was to minimize the environmental impact of agriculture waste disposed from various sources having impact on environment. Based on this scenario the conversion of the agriculture waste from sugar industry to furfural to reduce the environmental effect. The experimental study has been conducted for the production of furfural from bagasse by two methods such as soxhlet extractor & simple distillation. In this experimental analysis the various parameters such as amount of raw material, pH and temperature w.r.t time were studied. In addition to this the usage of solvents for the extraction process has been reported. The extracted furfural was analyzed by Gas chromatography and Mass spectroscopy with proper design analysis. Keywords: Extraction, Bagasse, Furfural, Pentosans, Soxhlet extractor, Simple distillation, Gas chromatography, Mass spectroscopy.