Abstract:
Rice straws are one of the hemicellulose-contained wastes, which one
of its main components is pentosan. Pentosan can be reacted into
furfural with acid catalytic hydrolysis reaction. This research is
intended to find out the effect of hydrolysis durations and sulfuric acid
(H2SO4) catalyst concentrations towards yield of furfural from rice
straws. The synthesis of furfural from rice straws is conducted by
refined the rice straws, then hydrolyze it with different concentrations
of sulfuric acid solution (1%, 3%, and 5% v/v) and with different
durations of hydrolysis reaction (1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, dan
5 hours). This hydrolisis reaction produced liquid, which are distilled
to separate furfural from sulfuric acid solution. The results of this
research show the yield of furfural from rice straws hydrolysis is
inversely proportional to sulfuric acid catalyst concentration and
hydrolysis duration. The best yield of furfural was 5,441%, which
obtained with 1% sulfuric acid catalyst concentration and 1 hour
hydrolysis duration.
