New Headspace Gas Chromatographic Method for Analyzing Five-Carbon Sugars in Biomass Hydrolysate

This study demonstrated a new method for analyzing five-carbon sugars in biomass hydrolysate by headspace gas chromatography (HS-GC). The proposed method is based on the reaction of five-carbon sugars with sulfuric acid, in which five-carbon sugars are converted to furfural that is measured with full evaporation headspace gas chromatography (FE-HSGC) using a flame ionization detector (FID). The experimental results showed that the complete conversion of five-carbon sugars to furfural can be achieved at 70 °C within 5 min, with a H2SO4 concentration of 15 mol/L. Moreover, it can be seen that the measurement precision (RSD ≤ 0.72%) and accuracy (recovery = 99.3 ± 1.9%) are very good. The operating procedure is simple, and the testing time is short. In addition, the proposed method does not need organic reagents. All of these demonstrate that the peoposed method is a rapid, reliable, and environmentally friendly method that is quite suitable for the analysis of five-carbon sugars in the hydrolysate during th...