Origin of furanic compounds in thermal degradation of cellulosic insulating paper

✍ Scribed by John Scheirs; Giovanni Camino; Mauro Avidano; Wander Tumiatti

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 187 KB
• Volume: 69
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19980926)69:13<2541::aid-app3>3.0.co;2-a

✦ Synopsis

The chemical components of cellulosic insulation (i.e., Kraft paper, cellulose, lignin, pentosans) used in electrical transformers were aged in transformer oil to determine the relative yield of furanic degradation products. The results show that the pentosans component of the paper give, by far, the highest yield of 2-furfural followed by cellulose, levoglucosan, and lignin. However, the pentosans did not produce any detectable quantities of either 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfuraldehyde or 2-furfurol, both of which are known to be produced by the degradation of Kraft paper. a-Cellulose was found to give 3 times as much 2-furfural as levoglucosan, which is a degradation product of cellulose, suggesting another pathway to 2-furfural production from cellulose than exclusively through the commonly quoted mechanism in which levoglucosan is the intermediate. It was also found that the production of 2-furfural from levoglucosan appears to be accelerated by acidic conditions in oxidized oil.