One of the outstanding achievements in the utilization of agricultural wastes in the manufacture of industrial chemicals is the development of the furfural industry. The furfural is produced by heating oat hulls at about 60 pounds pressure with about 5 per cent sulfuric acid for five or more hours (14, 16, 5). The yield is about 50 to 60 per cent of the theoretical. The studies reported in the present communication have to do with the production of furfural from strong xylose solutions by various combinations of hydrochloric acid and sodium chloride, in order to establish general principles of procedure which could be applied directly to the agricultural material or to the xylose-containing hydrolysates made therefrom. The presence of the salt decreases the solubility of the furfural, ensuring its more rapid and complete removal by the solvent. The salt likewise increases the activity of the acid. This latter phenomenon has been studied with reference to various hydrolytic actions (2,
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