Preparation of Furfural Through the Hydrolysis of Rice Hull Using a Combined Biological and Chemical Approach

Abstract

Furfural was prepared through the combined hydrolysis of rice hull with cellulase and SO₄^2--TiO₂ clay solid acid. An optimization analysis of the key factors was carried out with the methods of orthogonal experimentation and response surface analysis. The orthogonal experiment result of enzymolysis showed that the average pentose content was 17.54 g L^-1 under the following conditions i.e., granularity of raw materials, 120 grit; solid-to-liquid ratio, 1:13; zymohydrolysis temperature, 55 ºC; enzymolysis time, 8 h and amount of enzyme solution, 30 U g^-1 dry rice hull powder. The response surface analysis of the preparation of furfural with solid acid showed that the yield of furfural was 70.87 % under a reaction temperature of 152 ºC, reaction time of 125 min and 6.1 % of solid acid. Compared with the technology that does not use cellulase hydrolysis, the yield of furfural was increased by 18.41 %.