Much research in furfural production has focused on the dehydration of xylose through homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis in either water or ionic liquid solvents. Furfural production from xylose is typically catalyzed under high temperature and pressure to minimize side-product formation and increase reaction kinetics and furfural yield.
Some pathways to furfural suggest xylulose as an intermediate in the conversion of xylose to furfural. Using our method of simultaneous isomerization and reactive extraction (SIRE) for producing concentrated xylulose at high purity, we have reported high-yield, relatively high-selectivity conversion of xylulose to furfural under low temperature (under 140 °C) conditions in an aqueous reaction system. To further improve selectivity, we have investigated use of a biphasic reaction system to prevent undesired conversion of furfural to byproducts; the biphasic reaction system enables extraction of furfural from the aqueous phase as produced. Results are presented for furfural yield from xylulose for several organic phase compositions under low temperature conditions.