Comparative Characterization Study of components of Sugarcane Bagasse and Corn Stover
Absai C. Gomes(1) Lidia M.M. Santa Anna(1) David W. Templeton(2)
(1) Petrobras Research Center - Biotechnology Department - CENPES - Petrobras - Brazil (2) – National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO – USA
The importance in determining the principal components of the lignocellulosic fiber, aimed at determining the levels of efficiency biochemical biomass conversion made the need to compare methodologies wet chemical characterization of two important raw materials in the process of converting biomass to ethanol: sugarcane bagasse and corn stover. We conducted the first interlaboratory between CENPES/Petrobras and NREL, where significant differences were seen, mainly in the main content of carbohydrates (glucan and xylan) and lignin content. With that, the whole methodology applied by CENPES/PETROBRAS has been revised keeping some adjustments due to laboratory infrastructure and changing part of the procedure.
This paper presents the result of the second interlaboratory between the institutions, in order to evaluate the changes and adjustments made in terms of repeatability and accuracy of the results of analysis of lignocellulosic materials. The findings open up the expectation of standardizing these methodologies in order to ensure reliability and quality in monitoring the different samples of sugarcane bagasse and corn stover, and to facilitate the deployment of more advanced methodologies such as NIR, speeding up the results that support the progress of biochemical conversion of these fibers for the production of molecules of interest to the chemical sector and biofuels.