Naturally occurring and readily replenishable agricultural residues like sugar cane bagasse (a byproduct of sugar cane harvesting), corn cobs, wood products or cereal byproducts such as the hulls of cotton seed, oats and rice make up a huge renewable feedstock for furfural production. These hemicellulosic agricultural wastes are all rich in pentosans, the precursor polysaccharide of furfural.