The Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) provides a fast and efficient way to extract various biomass samples for sugar analysis to determine sample viability for alcohol production. This application note describes methods for the extraction of sugars from biomass samples using acidified solvents (in-cell hydrolysis) and extracting pre-hydrolyzed samples.

High-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAE-PAD) overcomes the limitations other methods and delivers fast carbohydrate analysis. However, due to the high concentration of the biofuel samples, a several-fold sample dilution must be performed before analysis, introducing a source of error. In this study, 2 hardware modifications were applied to handle high-concentration samples: A reduced injection volume from 10 to 0.4 μL and an increase in spacer gasket thickness in the electrochemical flow cell to 62 mil to reduce detection sensitivity.

This work shows a rapid (<8 min) and robust method with minimal sample pretreatment using high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAE-PAD) to determine the sugars of interest in the highly concentrated samples encountered in biofuel processing.

This work describes a high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAE-PAD)-based method for the determination of HMF in samples ranging from food to treated biomass. A Dionex ICS-3000 system with a CarboPac PA1 column, electrolytically generated hydroxide eluent, and electrochemical detection with disposable Au-on-polytetrafluoroethylene working electrodes are used. The Dionex CarboPac PA1 is a high-capacity, rugged column suitable for determining mono- and disaccharides, and has high resolution for HMF in a wide variety of matrices.

Corn stover, an acid-hydrolyzed leaf, husk, stalk, and cob remenants in the field after harvest, is a common feedstock for fermentation systems used in biofuel production. HPAE-PAD is a well-accepted method for carbohydrate determinations such as those found corn stover. The CarboPac® PA1 anion-exchange column rapidly elutes corn stover carbohydrates, resolving the monosacccharides from the unretained and undetected noncarbohydrate components of acid-hydrolyzed corn stover. Under these conditions, disaccharides and trisaccharides are also resolved, with a total elution time less than 10 min.