GC-MS Analysis of Catalytic Reaction Products of Glucose in Biomass Research

When converting biomass resources into energy or raw chemical materials, it is essential to improve the conversion yield and analyze the reaction process. This sort of analysis requires identifying volatile components; therefore, GCMS systems, with their excellent qualitative capabilities, are useful.
This report presents results obtained by adding a solid acid catalyst to an aqueous glucose solution, heating the solution, and then directly analyzing the resulting reaction solution using GC-MS without pretreatment.
At present, in the utilization of woody biomass, the cellulose that comprises approximately 60 % to 70 % of the material can be converted to glucose. The analysis of the catalytic reaction presented in this report revealed that primarily hydroxymehylfurfural is further generated from glucose used as a raw material. Hydroxymehylfurfural is a compound with considerable added value as a raw material for pharmaceuticals and chemicals. The analysis also revealed the existence of lactic acid and other low-grade organic acid compounds.
In addition, utilizing the GCMS-QP2010 Ultra, which features a differential vacuum system, enabled acquisition of favorable results even when directly injecting the sample aqueous solution into the GC-MS.