In accordance with the Department of Energy's goal, 0.75 billion tons of biomass will be required to replace 30% transportation fuels by biofuels in turn producing 0.225 billion tons of lignin. This lignin can be extended for higher value applications to increase profitability of the biorefinery. Pretreatment, purification and delignification of biorefinery ligninocellulosics yield lignin-rich materials, prioritizing the quantification.  A current method used to quantify lignin is the Klason and acid-soluble lignin method, which is time-consuming, invasive and destructive. A new method, Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) has gained popularity for the chemical analysis of lignocellulosics as a noninvasive, nondestructive and time-efficient technique (wavelength range of 800nm to 2500nm). However, models that have been developed by NIR are limited to lignocellulosic biomass (up to ~40% lignin) which cannot be applied to quantify lignin of high purity which may be obtained from the biorefinery. This work will address the need to develop models to quantify lignin-rich materials and potentially replace the traditional lignin method for more efficient analysis.

Progress in use of NIR on lignin-rich material from the biorefinery

246th National Meeting (2013)

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