High Throughput Biomass Compositional Analysis and Screening of Large Biomass Feedstock Populations for Variation In Recalcitrance

The determination of feedstock solids compositional analysis and combined pretreatment and enzymatic reactivity yield is resource and sample intensive using standard laboratory scale techniques. Increasing sample throughput and reducing costs for compositional analyses would speed screening of natural and genetically modified biomass feedstock varieties. We have developed both high throughput (HTP) compositional analysis and pretreatment/ enzymatic screening techniques for biomass conversion research. Both methods are based on the Society for Biomolecular Screening (SBS) standard microtiter plate format, enabling automated biomass dispensing, addition of catalyst, enzyme, buffer solutions, and redox enzyme-linked sugar analysis steps. In this report, we compare our HTP compositional analysis with results from HPLC, spectroscopic analytical techniques, and standard bench-scale analysis. In addition, the relative recalcitrance differences between samples within campaigns on large numbers of natural and genetically engineered variant populations to pretreatment and enzymatic digestion will be reported.