Rapid and Sensitive Determination of Biofuel Sugars by Ion Chromatography

Biofuels have emerged as an attractive alternative to fossil fuels; however, the development of robust analytical methods remains a challenge. It is critical to determine carbohydrates during biofuel alcohol production to ensure process yield and product quality. The carbohydrates in biomass samples are often quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using refractive index detection. The refractive-index-based method is not specific, and could have interferences from other compounds in the complex biomass matrices. Using high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAE-PAD), the key carbohydrates can be separated in under 10 min with minimal sample pretreatment. The method is robust and can be used in the highly concentrated samples encountered in biofuel processing.