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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Bioenergy Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #315059
Research Project: Technologies for Improving Process Efficiencies in Biomass Refineries

Location: Bioenergy Research

Title: Mass spectrometric analysis to identify arabino-xylo-oligomers generated from hydrothermal processing of switchgrass

Author
item Bowman, Michael
item Nguyen, Victoria
item Dien, Bruce

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/31/2015
Publication Date: 5/31/2015
Citation: Bowman, M.J., Nguyen, V.H., Dien, B.S. 2015. Mass spectrometric analysis to identify arabino-xylo-oligomers generated from hydrothermal processing of switchgrass [abstract]. p. 1.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Switchgrass (SG) is a potential biomass source for conversion to liquid biofuels. Efficient biochemical conversion requires pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification to fermentable sugars. The major carbohydrates present in SG are arabinoxylan and cellulose; commercial constraints demand efficient conversion of both to monosaccharides. Hot-water and dilute-acid pretreatments can be used to directly hydrolyze arabinoxylan. The kinetics of xylan hydrolysis is bimodal with fast reacting (65-80%) and slow reacting (20-35%) components, where additional reaction times degrade monosaccharides to fermentation inhibitors. It is hypothesized that the biomodal kinetics is related to arabinoxylan carbohydrate structure. Understanding the characteristics of arabino-xylo-oligomers released from fast reacting arabinoxylan can be used to optimize reaction conditions to minimize inhibitor formation, as well as identifying potentially beneficial biomass traits.