Monday, August 11, 2008
P60

Novel Method for the Rapid Simultaneous Measurement of Xylose and Glucose for Bioethanol Production

Nancy S. Dowe, National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401, Jamie N. Lussier, Life Sciences, YSI Incorporated, 1725 Brannum Lane, Yellow Springs, OH 45387, and Robert M. Gleason, Independent Consultant, 5708 S. Pitchin Rd., Springfield, OH 45502.

The ability to rapidly measure sugar concentrations is desirable and sometimes necessary for monitoring fermentation progress.  This can be challenging when multiple sugars are present; a situation faced when producing ethanol from pretreated lignocellulosic biomass.  In this study, we periodically measured glucose and xylose concentrations in filtered pretreated corn stover liquor fermentation samples over a 48-hour period. We used Yellow Springs Instrument (YSI) enzyme electrode technology to measure sugar concentrations in about one-minute with a turn around time under two minutes between samples. Samples were filtered and some samples required dilution, but the analysis needed just 13 microliters of sample. We determined the relative standard deviation for precision and percent recovery for glucose and xylose in several fermentation samples. Limits of detection and limits of quantification were also measured.  The results from the YSI method compared well to high performance liquid chromatography using refractive index detection, with the former method providing a fast and practical way to monitor glucose and xylose consumption in a mixed sugar fermentation.

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