Sunday, May 4, 2008
1-28
Rapid Compositional Analysis of Switchgrass Feedstocks and Effects of Compositional Variation on Conversion
Tanya Kruse, Bonnie R. Hames, Thomas W. Johnson, Brian Jerome, Anthy Alexiades, and Steven R. Thomas. Ceres, Inc., 1535 Rancho Conejo Blvd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
The ability to obtain an accurate chemical composition of switchgrass feedstocks using rapid and inexpensive methods is a key element in the development of dedicated bioenergy crops with enhanced characteristics for biofuels production, such as high ethanol yields and lower cost of conversion. This poster describes the development and use of rapid analysis methods for chemical characterization of switchgrass feedstocks. These new techniques combine Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and Projection to Latent Structures (PLS) multivariate analysis in methods inexpensive enough to allow the compositional analysis of hundreds of samples per day, while maintaining the precision and accuracy of the wet chemical methods used to calibrate the NIR method. In the development of improved energy crop varieties, information about the effects of cell wall composition on conversion performance characteristics will be critical. A small laboratory-scale, high-throughput assay has been developed that can be used to assess the conversion efficiency of biomass samples. Both acidic and basic thermochemical pretreatment methods have been employed, and the assay is reproducible at the milligram scale. Variation in enzymatic digestibility of washed, pretreated solids was identified not only in biomass with varying compositions, but also in biomass with similar compositions. Exploration of the composition and conversion characteristics of such samples allows us to provide critical information to farmers, enzyme manufacturers, and biomass processors to guide our collective thinking in the development of this new industry.
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See more of The 30th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals (May 4 -- 7, 2008)
See more of General Submissions
See more of The 30th Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals (May 4 -- 7, 2008)