title: Furfural Synthesis from d-Xylose in the Presence of Sodium Chloride: Microwave versus Conventional Heating.
abstract: We investigate the existence of specific/nonthermal microwave effects for the dehydration reaction of xylose to furfural in the presence of NaCl. Such effects are reported for sugars dehydration reactions in several literature reports. To this end, we adopted three approaches that compare microwave-assisted experiments with a) conventional heating experiments from the literature; b) simulated conventional heating experiments using microwave-irradiated silicon carbide (SiC) vials; and at c) different power levels but the same temperature by using forced cooling. No significant differences in the reaction kinetics are observed using any of these methods. However, microwave heating still proves advantageous as it requires 30 % less forward power compared to conventional heating (SiC vial) to achieve the same furfural yield at a laboratory scale.
authors.affiliation: Process Engineering for Sustainable Systems (ProcESS), Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, 3001, Leuven, Belgium.|Process & Energy Department, Delft University of Technology, Leeghwaterstraat 39, 2628 CB, Delft, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xiouras
authors.affiliation: Process & Energy Department, Delft University of Technology, Leeghwaterstraat 39, 2628 CB, Delft, the Netherlands.|Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Radacsi
authors.affiliation: Process & Energy Department, Delft University of Technology, Leeghwaterstraat 39, 2628 CB, Delft, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sturm
authors.affiliation: Process Engineering for Sustainable Systems (ProcESS), Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200F, 3001, Leuven, Belgium. georgios.stefanidis@cit.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Georgios D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Stefanidis
mesh_terms: D060326:Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic; D005662:Furaldehyde / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D006358:Hot Temperature; D007700:Kinetics; D008872:Microwaves; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry*; D014994:Xylose / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012965:Sodium Chloride; D014994:Xylose; D005662:Furaldehyde
keywords: furfural; microwave heating; nonthermal effects; sodium chloride; xylose dehydration