Elsevier, Sugar Series #13: Furfural and its many By-products

The chemistry and technology of furfural and its many by-products, by Karl J. Zeitsch (Elsevier), is also available on google books. Since its publications over ten years ago,there have been many articles/patents that make referenced to (or cited) Karl’s work, which has also been the basis for our own technology developments. Whilst there are shortcomings in some of the theories Karl put forward with regard to “loss reactions”, his work assisted our and other research teams to find new pathways that lead to the next generation of furfural manufacturing technologies.

With his book, Karl certainly achieved “to arouse the interest and inventiveness of a new generation, to the end of moving the field of furfural and its by-products into the limelight it deserves” (Epilogue, p. 334). Over the last ten years, some new products and production capacities have been introduced and the basis has been created so that over the two years new capacity will come online that will support the expanatial growth these by-products will have.