Abstract

India has agro-based economy and agriculture accounts for a large share of GDP and employment. Besides, a number of useful products, a large quantity of agro-wastes are also produced which is not properly used at present. These agro-wastes are either burnt as fuel or improperly disposed off causing the problem of waste treatment and environmental pollution. Furfural is derived from the pentosan in the cellulose of plant tissues, the most prominent sources of which are corn cobs, saw dust, rice husk, bagasse, pea nut shell. Most furfural that is being produced today is derived from corncobs. In the process we used two different concentrations of sulphuric acid was taken as 14% and 16%. For 16% acid concentration we get maximum conversion of Pentoses to furfural. The hydrolysis process was carried out in simple distillation set up; in distillate we get hydrolysed solution which contained mixture of water, furfural and some light fractions like as methanol acetone etc. After hydrolysis we have to separate furfural from hydrolysed solution therefore we used the Pervaporation process for separation of furfural. Pervaporation is the combination of evaporation and permeation. If we use distillation process after hydrolysis we required maximum time and more energy. By distillation we don’t not get water, ie water is not recycled. But by pervaporation we get pure water to recycling and required less energy and short duration for process.

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