Development of a GC-MS Method for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural Determination in Wood after Steam-explosion Pretreatment

http://www.revistadechimie.ro 557 Woody biomass is the most abundant renewable resource and can be used for alternative energy sources and chemicals [1-4]. The major components of wood are: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin [5-8]. Cellulose and hemicellulose could be chemical [9-10], biochemical [11], physic [12] and physico-chemical [13-15] depolymerized to sugars. Most of the chemical transformation of wood into components was performed using solvents, requires long processing time and presence of chemicals [16]. Hexoses present in hemicellulosic phase are degraded to 5hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) during pretreatment for separation of wood into components [17-19]. HMF is very toxic furan derivatives found in all sugars: in acid pretreated wood hydrolysates and also in some foods [20, 21]. The existing methods for HMF analyses are classical methods as colorimetry and spectrophotometry, and also advanced techniques, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection and gas chromatography (GC). Generally, to increase the sensitivity and to improve the chromatographic separation is used a derivatization procedure. Several publications reported presence of HMF in food, in urine, wine by GC-MS [22-25]. The methods used for extraction of HMF followed by GCMS are: liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), solid phase extraction (SPE) and solid phase microextraction (SPME) with and without derivatization, depending of the raw material [26, 27]. In recent year, woody biomass was in attention as a renewable resource of energy, in particular for bioethanol production. One of the important stages of this process is the pretreatment process for cellulose and hemicellulose separation and for this are used several techniques [28]. Steam-explosion pretreatment can be used for hydrolysis of wood in presence of water, for cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin separation [29-31]. Water is used in this case as green medium for separation of water soluble products from wood based on changes in the dielectric properties of water at high temperature and pressure when approach those of organic solvents [32]. Impregnation with sulphuric acid of woody biomass previous to steam-explosion pretreatment improves the recovery of hemicellulosic sugars and secondary products Development of a GC-MS Method for 5-hydroxymethylfurfural Determination in Wood after Steam-explosion Pretreatment