In collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, US, YSI Life Sciences has carried out an evaluation on the comparability of a YSI biochemistry analyser and HPLC analytical methods for glucose and xylose monitoring of acid hydrolysed corn stover fermentation.
Acid-treated corn stover produces a variety of fermentable sugars that include glucose, xylose, mannose, arabinose, cellobiose, and galactose.
HPLC is commonly used to measure glucose and xylose, which are important markers for evaluating the progress and efficiency of ethanol fermentation processes.
The HPLC method is accurate and precise. However, it requires significant sample pre-treatment and analytical cycle times greater than 30 minutes.
A YSI biochemistry analyser, configured with glucose oxidase and pyranose oxidase immobilised enzyme membranes, was evaluated for its ability to simultaneously measure glucose and xylose during fermentation of pre-treated corn stover in a bioethanol production process.
In the study, filtered corn stover samples were periodically measured for glucose and xylose over a 48-hour period during a lab-scale bioethanol fermentation.
Samples were analysed on both a YSI Biochemistry Analyser and an HPLC.
Comparability of the two analytical methods was evaluated with regards to precision and analysis time.
A strong, positive correlation of the two methods was demonstrated.
The YSI biochemistry analyser performed simultaneous analysis of glucose and xylose in less than 3 minutes, providing a rapid, precise analytical alternative to the HPLC analytical method.
