An efficient process for dehydration of xylose to furfural catalyzed by inorganic salts in water/dimethyl sulfoxide system

An efficient homogeneous catalytic process was developed for the dehydration of xylose to furfural using inorganic salts as catalysts in a water/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) system under mild condition. The effects of the types of inorganic salts were compared. The results showed that chlorides had higher catalytic performance than other salts, and SnCl 4 was the most effective chloride. The catalytic activity of paired SnCl 4 /LiCl catalysts was much higher than that of the single salt, and when the distribution coefficient ( χ SnCl4 ) was 0.8, the maximum furfural yield was 56.9%. The effects of the reaction conditions on the furfural yield were also investigated. The highest furfural yield, 63.0%, was achieved at 130 °C for 6 h under the optimized reaction conditions.