Xiaoyun Li's paper, "dynamics of functional production from corn cob in γ-valeractone using dilute sulfur acid as catalyst", was published in ACS sustainable chemistry and engineering doi: 10.1021/acssubschemeng.7b00950.

      Conversion of corn cob to furfural was investigated using γ-valerolactone as the solvent with a dilute sulfuric acid catalyst. A maximum furfural yield of 99.50% was obtained at 190 °C for 20 min with 0.10% sulfuric acid. A well-evaluated kinetic model was used for this reaction, and its activation energy was calculated. The model agreed closely with the experimental data and kinetics parameters, indicating that γ-valerolactone accelerated furfural formation and decreased the degradation rate as compared to water.

       ACS sustainable chemistry and engineering was founded in 2013 by the American Chemistry Society. The JCR Chinese Academy of Sciences is divided into TOP journals in the second chemistry category. The main areas covered are life cycle assessment, green chemistry, waste as a resource, alternative energy, and green innovative manufacturing. Journal submission URL: https://acs.manuscriptcentral.com/acs