Abstract
KAI was utilized, as a raw material, for the production of furfuraI. The effect of various acid concentrations and different digestion periods was studied at a constant temperature of 100 ± 0,5'C on the yield. of furfural. Optimum yield 9.66 per cent was achieved with 15 per cent viv 'hydrochloric acid for a digestion period of 150 minutes. The effect of catalysts on the optimum yield of furfural revea. led that sodium chloride and calcium chloride had a little effect whereas aluminium chloride increased the yield from 9.66 per cent to 11.39 per cent.
INTRODUCTION
Furfural (2-furfuraldohycle) is an important organic compound due to its applications in various chemical industries. It is used as a selective solvent in vegetable oil, drying oil and in petroleum refining for the purification of lubri-cating-oil, gas oil and diesel oil. It is employed as paint and varnish remover. Fu.rfaral and its derivatives are also used in pharmaceutical insecticide, herbi-cide and. fungicide preparationa, It is widely used in plastic industry and for the manufacture of synthetic rubber, nylon "66" fibre and perfumes. Furfural has been obtained from a variety of vegetative raw materials and agricultural wastes such as bagasse, rice hulls, wheat bran, corn cobs and pericarp but: such an attempt has not been made on KAI which is a he per and exuberantly available raw material in Pakistan. Therefore, this project was undertaken to prepare furfural from KAI.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
For digestion, dried stock sample of RAI (10 g) was taken in round bottom *Department of Chemistry, Univ. of Agrictiturc, Faisalabad. **Department. of Soil Science, niv, of Agriculture, Faisalabad,
