Rapid analysis of barley straw before and after dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment by photoluminescence

Abstract

The fluorescence intensities (FIs) of raw and pretreated barley straws were measured by fluorescence microscopy, and the difference in the fluorescence intensity of barley straw before and after dilute acid pretreatment was analyzed by investigation of the major compounds of barley straw. The difference in fluorescence intensity was due to the difference in xylan content. Barley straw was pretreated using dilute sulfuric acid at various conditions and the correlation between the fluorescence intensity and glucose yield of barley straw was investigated. The coefficient of determination (R(2)) of the correlation was found to be 72.28%. Also the calibration of fluorescence intensity with the xylan content was performed. In addition, the absorption and emission spectra of the raw and the pretreated barley straw were examined to verify the proposed method. The absorption and emission wave lengths were 550 nm and 665 nm, respectively.

Keywords: Biomass analysis; Dilute acid pretreatment; Fluorescence; Photoluminescence; Xylan.