Biorefining of lignocellulosic biomass has become one of the most valuable alternatives for the production of many commodities (materials, chemical buildings blocks, fuels). Due to its natural chemical and structural complexity, lignocellulose is a complex molecular assembly to characterize. Wet chemistry analysis require extensive sample preparation and long-time experiments. That is why several research groups are using for instance near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) to set-up equations predicting lignocellulose composition. In complement, fluorescence properties of lignocellulose can provide a whole set of information related to the structural and chemical properties of lignocellulose: - saccharification yield prediction of lignocellulose after an enzymatic hydrolysis, by measuring ab initio fluorescence emission of lignocellulose; - lignin properties and linkage content, by evaluating fluorescence lifetime (FLIM); - porosity of materials by measuring the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP); - interactions between some fluorescently-labelled probes (such as enzymes) and lignin by measuring Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET); - structural evolution of lignocellulose structure during the course of enzymatic saccharification by imaging in 4D. Overall, fluorescence measurements represent one of the most powerful techniques to characterize such a complex biomaterial such as lignocellulose.

Fluorescence as a versatile method to characterize lignocellulose

2019 Spring National Meeting

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