Replacing liquid chromatography with tailored ion chromatography: A green method for detecting furfuryl alcohol and understanding its properties

•A green method for FFA detection was proposed by using IC in tandem with UV detector;.•The MDL of FFA analyzed by IC and LC methods were found similar;.•The pKa of FFA was proven to be not 9.55, which disproves earlier finding reported in 1970s;.•FFA was sensitive to UV/H2O2 and/or OCl− but not sensitive to UV or H2O2 separately;.•Evidence shows that 1O2 was less likely formed during the reaction between NaOCl and H2O2.