Hydrothermal production of furfural from xylose and xylan as model compounds for hemicelluloses

The uncatalyzed microwave-assisted hydrothermal conversion of xylose and xylan as hemicellulose model compounds to furfural at temperatures of 160–240 °C and reaction times of 5–240 min is investigated. With acceptable reaction rates at 200 °C the conversion of xylose provides furfural with a maximum yield of 49%. The conversion of xylan, however, requires lower temperatures (160–180 °C) in order to promote the hydrolysis of the polymer, yielding xylose as a furfural precursor.