Furfural is an important and widely used organic compound produced from the Acid catalyzed hydrolysis of agricultural wastes. In this work continuous and batch hydrolysis of these wastes are investigated using saturated steam and saturated water respectively. For each of the hydrolysis methods investigated, effective parameters are identified and based on the experimental work carried out the optimum range for each of these parameters is found. The most important parameters are:
feed type, reaction time, reaction temperature, type and the amount of the catalyst used and the amount of water or steam fed to the reactor. In the batch method it was seen that the best feed is Bayess producing 8.61 gr furfural for every 100 gr of dry feed. In the continuous method the best result was obtained for rice husk with a yield of 6.84 gr of furfural for every 100 gr of dry feed. The effect of the parameters mentioned above are presented based on extensive parametric study.
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