Tuesday, May 1, 2012: 8:30 AM
Waterbury Ballroom, 2nd fl (Sheraton New Orleans)
Biomass recalcitrance is one of the major problems in the production of biofuels from
lignocellulosic biomass. This biomass recalcitrance can be overcome by using various chemical
pretreatments. Ionic liquid (IL) pretreatment reduces total lignin content and increases the
saccharification rate and yield of biomass after pretreatment. The efficiency of IL pretreatment is
dependent on the biomass and the pretreatment conditions. The effectiveness of any pretreatment
technique is measured in terms of total sugar and lignin content, saccharification rate and
saccharification yield. The wet chemistry techniques used for the measurement of these
parameters are both labor intensive and time consuming. Hence, there is a need to develop
a technique for a quick estimation of these parameters for small changes in the pretreatment
conditions.
lignocellulosic biomass. This biomass recalcitrance can be overcome by using various chemical
pretreatments. Ionic liquid (IL) pretreatment reduces total lignin content and increases the
saccharification rate and yield of biomass after pretreatment. The efficiency of IL pretreatment is
dependent on the biomass and the pretreatment conditions. The effectiveness of any pretreatment
technique is measured in terms of total sugar and lignin content, saccharification rate and
saccharification yield. The wet chemistry techniques used for the measurement of these
parameters are both labor intensive and time consuming. Hence, there is a need to develop
a technique for a quick estimation of these parameters for small changes in the pretreatment
conditions.
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) is a novel technique that gives detailed information about the
chemical bonds present in the substrate. FTIR spectroscopy is used for the characterization of
untreated and pretreated samples. It is used to estimate the sugar content in mutangenized plants
and to predict the saccharification yield for alkali-pretreated biomass. In this work FTIR, coupled
with partial least square regression (PLS), is used for the estimation of total sugar content, lignin
content and saccharification kinetics of IL pretreated biomass (avicel, switchgrass, pine and
eucalyptus). Further, the effect of various IL pretreatment conditions like temperature and time
on PLS models is verified.