Compositional Analysis of Herbaceous Feedstocks: A Portfolio of Methods for Total Mass Closure Analysis: Abstract No. 1A-02

The efficient use of herbaceous biomass feedstocks, like corn stover, sorghum or alfalfa will require a strategy for efficiently processing a complex polymeric biomass matrix. Understanding and optimizing biomass fractionation in an enzymatic biomass conversion process may require measuring and tracking 12-15 constituents in the starting feedstock through pretreatment, sacharrification andfermentation. This paper presents a portfolio of wet chemical analysis methods that, when used together, allow for total mass closure analysis of herbaceous feedstocks and tracking of all major biomass constituents through a typical biorefinery process. Methods discussed will include sample preparation, extractions to remove non-structural materials, fractionation of structural constituents forquantitative measurement, options for protein tracking, appropriate QA/QC and translation of measured values into a consistent format for reporting sample composition with high mass closure (>98% analyzed and identified). Constituents measured and reported include moisture, non-structural inorganics (soil), structural inorganics (silica), protein, chlorophyll, sucrose, lignin, cellulose, andhemicellulose (as xylan, arabinan, mannan, galactan, uronic acids, and acetyl groups). Modifications of the feedstock methods for the accurate analysis of liquids and solid process streams will also be presented. The need for high mass closure analysis methods for the calibration of rapid biomass analysis methods will be discussed.