High-resolution mass spectrometric analysis of biomass pyrolysis vapors

Abstract

Vapors generated from the pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass are made up of a complex mixture of oxygenated compounds. Direct analysis of these vapors provides insight into the mechanisms of depolymerization of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin as well as insight into reactions that may occur during condensation of pyrolysis vapors into bio-oil. Studies utilizing pyrolysis molecular beam mass spectrometry have provided valuable information regarding the chemical composition of pyrolysis vapors. Mass spectrometers generally employed with these instruments have low mass resolution of approximately a mass unit. The presence of chemical species with identical unit mass but differing elemental formulas cannot be resolved with these instruments and are therefore detected as a single ion. In this study we analyzed the pyrolysis vapors of several biomass sources using a high-resolution double focusing mass spectrometer. High-resolution analysis of pyrolysis vapors allowed for speciation of several compounds that

Accurate determination of genotypic variance of cell wall characteristics of a Populus trichocarpa pedigree using high-throughput pyrolysis-molecular beam mass spectrometry

“…In particular, py-MBMS has been used as a high-throughput technique to estimate relative lignin content, lignin monomeric syringyl (S) to guaiacyl (G), (S/G) ratios, sugar composition and terpenoid content of lignocellulosic biomass [ 9 , 10 , 21 – 25 ]. The source of ions present in mass spectra derived from the pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass has been the focus of many investigations and has been studied on many types of instruments and scales [ 26 – 29 ]. Typically, py-MBMS spectra are sum (total ion chromatogram, TIC) or mean-normalized and are used to screen or elucidate cell wall composition on the basis of a small fraction of the ions present in the spectra.…”

Accurate Determination of Genotypic Variance of Cell Wall Characteristics of a Populus trichocarpa Pedigree Using High-Throughput Pyrolysis-Molecular Beam Mass Spectrometry

“…In particular, py-MBMS has been used as a high-throughput technique to estimate relative lignin content, lignin monomeric syringyl (S) to guaiacyl (G), (S/G) ratios, sugar composition and terpenoid content of lignocellulosic biomass (9,10,(21)(22)(23)(24)(25). The source of ions present in mass spectra derived from the pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass has been the focus of many investigations and has been studied on many types of instruments and scales (26)(27)(28)(29). Typically, py-MBMS spectra are sum (total ion chromatogram, TIC) or mean-normalized and are used to screen or elucidate cell wall composition on the basis of a small fraction of the ions present in the spectra.…”

Relationship between the molecular composition, visible light absorption, and health-related properties of smoldering woodsmoke aerosols

“…High-molecular weight compounds that were observed are tentatively assigned to dimers from phenolic G and S units building blocks with various linkages (Fig. 4, bottom) according to previous observations (Goñi and Hedges, 1992;van der Hage et al, 1994;Guillén and Ibargoitia, 1999;Christensen et al, 2017), mechanistic feasibility (Beste, 2014), and MS n evidence where available. Radical chemistry of the lignin formation and combustion is probabilistic, such that the diversity of isomers increases with molecular mass, so there are likely multiple structures possible for each larger molecular formula.…”