PENGARUH WAKTU HIDROLISIS DAN KONSENTRASI KATALISATOR ASAM SULFAT TERHADAP SINTESIS FURFURAL DARI JERAMI PADI

Rice straws are one of the hemicellulose-contained wastes, which one of its main components is pentosan. Pentosan can be reacted into furfural with acid catalytic hydrolysis reaction. This research is intended to find out the effect of hydrolysis durations and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) catalyst concentrations towards yield of furfural from rice straws. The synthesis of furfural from rice straws is conducted by refined the rice straws, then hydrolyze it with different concentrations of sulfuric acid solution (1%, 3%, and 5% v/v) and with different durations of hydrolysis reaction (1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, dan 5 hours). This hydrolisis reaction produced liquid, which are distilled to separate furfural from sulfuric acid solution. The results of this research show the yield of furfural from rice straws hydrolysis is inversely proportional to sulfuric acid catalyst concentration and hydrolysis duration. The best yield of furfural was 5,441%, which obtained with 1% sulfuric acid catalyst concentration and 1 hour hydrolysis duration.