Furfural

Description

Furfural is a colourless to amber-like oily liquid with an almond-like odour. On exposure to light and air, it turns reddish brown. Furfural is used in making chemicals, as a solvent in petroleum refining, a fungicide, and a weed killer. It is incompatible with strong acids, oxidisers, and strong alkalis. It undergoes polymerisation on contact with strong acids or strong alkalis. Furfural is produced commercially by the acid hydrolysis of pentosan polysaccharides from non-food residues of food crops and wood wastes. It is used widely as a solvent in petroleum refining, in the production of phenolic resins, and in a variety of other applications. Human exposure to furfural occurs during its production and use, as a result of its natural occurrence in many foods and from the combustion of coal and wood.

Description

Furfural, or furan-2-carbaldehyde, is an oily liquid formed when sugars from lignocellulosic biomasses such as corncobs, sawdust, and oat hulls dehydrate. This is a natural process that is the basis of the commercial production of furfural.
In the first half of the 19th century, chemists such as Johann W. D?bereiner at the University of Jena (Germany) and John Stenhouse at Glasgow University discovered furfural in the distillation products of various biomaterials. It did not become an industrial product until Quaker Oats (Chicago) began to produce it on a large scale from oat hulls.
Furfural, one of the earliest sustainable chemical feedstocks, is used to synthesize a wide range of industrial chemicals, including solvents, resins, plastics, and furan derivatives. As the hazard information table shows, it must be handled with an abundance of caution.
Furfural is one of several five-carbon oxygenated hydrocarbons that make up the aroma of canned pumpkin you might use to make your Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. Oddly, this odor differs significantly from that of the six-carbon compounds, such as former Molecule of the Week cis-3-hexen-1-ol, that emanates from freshly cut pumpkins.
Happy Thanksgiving from the MOTW team!

The Uses of Furfural

In the manufacture of furfural-phenol plastics such as Durite; in solvent refining of petroleum oils; in the preparation of pyromucic acid. As a solvent for nitrated cotton, cellulose acetate, and gums; in the manufacture of varnishes; for accelerating vulcanization; as insecticide, fungicide, germicide; as reagent in analytical chemistry. In the synthesis of furan derivatives.