The use of biomass-derived compounds as substitutes of pet roleum has received much a t tent ion1)~4). Because of the complex nature of biomass, the conversions of biomass to chemicals usually start with the production of small molecules called platform chemicals by thermal, chemical or biological processing5). Among these platform chemicals, furfural6) and 5hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)7) are es...

A membrane bioreactor was developed to counteract the inhibition effect of furfural in ethanol production. Furfural, a major inhibitor in lignocellulosic hydrolyzates, is a highly toxic substance which is formed from pentose sugars released during the acidic degradation of lignocellulosic materials. Continuous cultivations with complete cell retention were performed at a high dilution rate of 0...

Effectiveness of furfural as an organic inhibitor in 5 percent hydrochloric acid which is used in acid pickling of steel was evaluated. Lungmuir, Frumkin and Flory-Huggins isotherms [1, 2] were used to determine the parameters of effective adsorption, free energy and entropy of adsorption. Furfural indicated an inhibition less than 17 percent in concentrations of 0.001 mole per liter for a dura...

BACKGROUND Biofuels offer a viable alternative to petroleum-based fuel. However, current methods are not sufficient and the technology required in order to use lignocellulosic biomass as a fermentation substrate faces several challenges. One challenge is the need for a robust fermentative microorganism that can tolerate the inhibitors present during lignocellulosic fermentation. These inhibitor...

BACKGROUND Fermentation of bioethanol using lignocellulosic biomass as a raw material provides a sustainable alternative to current biofuel production methods by utilising waste food streams as raw material. Before lignocellulose can be fermented, it requires physical, chemical and enzymatic treatment in order to release monosaccharides, a process that causes the chemical transformation of gluc...

Graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets were investigated for developing effective Pt catalyst supports for selective hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol in water. The nanosheets with an average thickness of about 3 nm were synthesized by a simple and green method through thermal oxidation etching of bulk g-C3N4 in air. Combined with the unique feature of nitrogen richness and locally con...

Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling of furfural tosylhydrazones with aryl halides produces 2-furylmethylenepalladium halides, which can undergo intramolecular nucleophilic dearomatization to provide spiroacetal enol ethers. This is the first report on the formation of 2-furylmethylenepalladium halides from stable furfural hydrazones instead of from 2-furylmethyl halides, which are not readily accessibl...

Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of furfural tosylhydrazones with 2-iodoanilines or 2-iodothiophenols produces polysubstituted indoles or benzothiophenes, respectively. The reaction proceeds through 2-furylmethylene palladium iodide intermediates, which undergo furan ring opening followed by ring closure to form indoles or benzothiophenes. This reaction will expand the synthetic applications ...

BACKGROUND Current biomass pretreatment by hydrothermal treatment (including acid hydrolysis, steam explosion, and high-temperature steaming) and ionic liquids generally generate inhibitors to the following fermentation process. Furfural is one of the typical inhibitors generated in hydrothermal treatment of biomass. Furfural could inhibit cell growth rate and decrease biofuel productivity of m...

BACKGROUND Furfural is a major growth inhibitor in lignocellulosic hydrolysates and improving furfural tolerance of microorganisms is critical for rapid and efficient fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass. In this study, we used the RNAi-Assisted Genome Evolution (RAGE) method to select for furfural resistant mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and identified a new determinant of furfural to...