Ana Lucia Daz Patio

Biomasa con laboratorio

Questions
19/05/2016

Which are the methods or techniques for the characterization of biomass?

Biomass can be problematic for many characterization techniques because it is a
soft, hydrophilic, heterogeneous, multi-component, polymeric, and non-conducting
material. However, in recent years, the development of techniques geared toward
such softmaterials has greatly expanded.

1. HIGH THROUGHPUT ANALYSIS

Many recent approaches to bypassing the limitations of biological
conversion of lignocellulosic biomass have focused on altering plant
substrate characteristics via genetic manipulation to generate a cel wall
more amenable to conversion while continuing to develop improved
pretreatments and microbial/ enzymatic conversin technologies for
higheryield, lower-cost sugar release.
The former part of this strategy entails searching for and targeting specific
cell wall genotypes and phenotypes linked to overall sugar yields from
biological deconstruction.
A recent study has shown the efficacy of this strategy by demonstrating
increased sugar yields from enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentability to
ethanol by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation with yeast and
Clostridium thermocellum, achieved by down-regulating the caffeic acid
Omethyl transferase gene in a viable switchgrass mutant.
Though in this case successful, the strategy suffers from a significant lack of
information pertaining to which genes to alter and how those manipulations
may not only alter recalcitrance, but also other cell wall properties critical to
plant development and function. An in-depth understanding of the substrate
characteristics critical to biomass recalcitrance and the related biosynthetic
pathways is essential for identifying recalcitrancerelated genes. Other tools,
such as bioinformatics, association mapping, and quantitative trait locus
(QTL) analysis, can also be utilized, although many of these methods
require large sample sizes.
Furthermore, due to the inherent uncertainty associated with the genetic
engineering of complex biological systems such as plants, screening a large
number of mutant plants is typically required. HTP analytical techniques to
characterize biomass recalcitrance and recalcitrancerelated substrate
characteristics are vital to any biomass deconstruction enhancement
strategy involving genetic manipulation.
2. HTP recalcitrance screening
Is the most effective screen for biomass recalcitrance relies on sugar yields
resulting from chemical pretreatment and/or enzymatic hydrolysis

What are they required?

Ana Lucia Daz Patio
Biomasa con laboratorio
Questions
19/05/2016

I. Biomass preparation
We can use coffee husk, tucum seed, sugar cane bagasse, peanut shell, rice
husk and pine sawdust
Then the simple chosen it need to be chopped in a household blender and
sieved as received i.e the samples were evaluated
without pre-treatment and in a wet basis. Particles whose diameter was lower
than 109 m were selected.
II. Ultimate Analysis
The oxygen percentage was determined by difference and taking into
consideration the wettability and ash contents obtained by the
thermogravimetric curves under air environment.
III. Determination of heating values
IV. Hight heating values (HHV), which are measured in terms of the energy
content per unit mass (kJ/kg), were determined in triplicate using the
calorimetric bomb IKA C 2000, according to ASTM
Compositional analysis comprises the determination of moisture (M), volatiles
matter (VM) + fixed carbn
(FC) and ash contents. The kinetic study is related to the activation energy
determination for the termal degradation process of the samples under inert
atmosphere
V. Mathematical Model for the kinetic study

Model-free kinetics is used for the determination of the activation energy. This
model is based on isoconversional techniques to calculate the activation energy
as a function of conversion () of the
chemical reaction. The theory is based on Eq.1.
equation1

where t is the time, T is the temperature, f () is the model of the reaction and k
(T) is the coefficient of
Arrhenius reaction rate. After the necessary adjustments and considerations, as
shown in several prior
studies Vyazovkin (1999); the Model-free kinetics is represented by Eq.2.
Ana Lucia Daz Patio
Biomasa con laboratorio
Questions
19/05/2016

equation 2

where is the heating rate, g () is an integrated model of reaction and

subscript represents the values of a given conversion.
For the kinetic study of a biomass, it is interesting to include hemicelluloses,
cellulose and lignin degradation process and disregard moisture release in the
model. Each sample is different and, therefore, the chosen interval of thermal
degradation is also different.

REFERENCES
[1]. M., C. and M., P. (2014). Physical Chemical Characterization of
Biomass Samples for Application in Pyrolysis Process. The Italian
Association of Chemical Engineering, 37, pp.524-525.
[2]. Foston, M. (2012). Biomass Characterization: Recent Progress in
Understanding Biomass Recalcitrance. pp.193-194.