Title
A systematic analytical study on lignocelluloses originated inhibitors in hydrolyzed biomass
Authors
KALICHARAN CHATTOPADHYAY A. K. TIWARI DHEER SINGH ANJU CHOPRA M. B. PATEL and B. BASU

Published Volume 49 Issue 1 January
Keywords lignocelluloses, pretreatment, inhibitors, quantification, gas chromatography

Abstract
Ethanol production from inexpensive and abundant lignocelluloses has received a great deal of scientific attention with the objective to compensate fuel scarcity. Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass provides hydrolysable polysaccharides contaminated with some inhibitory compounds that inhibit the enzymatic hydrolysis of the polysaccharides and the fermentation of single unit sugars. Furfural, hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) and acetic acid were analyzed as the major toxins or inhibitors in hydrolysates (i.e. pretreatment products), using gas chromatography (GC) with a PEG column (PEG-20,000 column; 60m x0.32mm x 0.25µm), based on their linear calibration curves in the concentration range of 375-3000 ppm. The compositions of the lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysates were analyzed to correlate the performance of different sources for ethanol production. The formation of other products, such as vanillin, 5-methyl furfural, furfuryl alcohol etc., along with the inhibitors, was observed by gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and it was anticipated that some of them might be able to inhibit the saccharification and fermentation processes.