Methods for the determination of levoglucosan and other sugar anhydrides as biomass burning tracers in environmental samples – A review

Abstract

Nowadays, there is a great pressure on finding an alternative source of energy. One such source is biomass combustion. Biomass is any organic matter such as wood, crops, seaweed, and animal wastes that during combustion emits energy but also smoke and solid residue. Biomass burning tracers, such as levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan, are sugar anhydrides produced during burning of biomass that contain cellulose and hemicellulose. Analysis of environmental samples for tracers is the source of information about the type of biofuel burned. In this article, a literature review of the preparation and determination of biomass burning tracers for environmental samples was presented. The review discusses the preparation of different samples (particulate matter, soils, sediments, biological samples), extraction, derivatization, and determination. Amongst determination methods the most popular was gas chromatography with mass spectrometry but other techniques were also used, such as high‐performance liquid chromatography with aerosol charge detection, capillary electrophoresis with pulsed amperometric detection, and ion chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection.

Conversion of levoglucosan into glucose by the coordination of four enzymes through oxidation, elimination, hydration, and reduction

“…Monosaccharide anhydrides, such as levoglucosan (1,6-anhydro-β- d -glucopyranoside; LG), mannosan, and galactosan, are generated from the burning of cellulose and hemicellulose 1 , 2 . As the burning of biomass is a major source of particle matter, these anhydrosugars are expected to be indicators of air pollution 3 . It has been estimated that 90 million metric tons of anhydrosugars are produced every year, with the majority being LG (> 90%) 4 .…”

Comparison of biomass burning tracer concentrations between two winter seasons in Krynica Zdrój

“…Biomass consists of several main components, such as cellulose with 40-50% dry weight of wood; hemicellulose with 20-30% dry weight of wood; and lignins, combined with tannins, terpenes and other substances. The relative amount of tracers is determined by the type of biomass (softwood, hardwood, and grass) (Simoneit 2002, Janoszka andCzaplicka 2019) and the proportions of the components (Pereira et al 2017).…”

“…The LG/MN ratio can be used to distinguish wood type burnt, but it makes it difficult to separate emissions from hardwood and crop residual burning (Cheng et al 2013). The concentration of biomass burning tracers can be determined by different techniques, but the most popular techniques are gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection (HPLC/PAD) (Schkolnik and Rudich 2006;Janoszka and Czaplicka 2019). In this research, the concentration of biomass burning tracers was determined by GC/MS.…”

环境介质中左旋葡聚糖记录与植被火燃烧变化研究进展

“…全球地表生态结构、气候系统和人类社会等多方面产生重要影响 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] 。譬如，植 被火燃烧是地表植被演替的重要驱动因素 [1,3,5] ，烟尘也是人类呼吸道和心血管疾 病的主要诱发因素等 [11] 。据估算，20 世纪以来全球每年植被火燃烧面积大约是 4 10 6 km 2 [7,12] ，每年产生的碳排放量高达 2000 Tg(百万吨)以上 [7,9] ，超过人类 碳排放总量的 20%，是地表系统中碳循环的重要组成部分。植被火燃烧烟尘气溶 胶在热对流作用下可以被传输至对流层顶部甚至平流层高度 [13][14][15] ， 能够对全球气 候产生重要影响 [6,13,15] 。植被火燃烧烟尘气溶胶化学组成成分复杂，主要包括黑 碳、有机碳、特征离子(如 K + 、NH 4 + 等) 、多环芳烃、小分子有机酸、酮类、醛 类、 酚类和左旋葡聚糖等 [2,[16][17][18][19][20] 。 通过对地表不同环境介质中代表性成分的研究， 能够为理解全球变化背景下植被火燃烧历史变化特征、 火燃烧碳排放与火燃烧未 来变化预测等问题提供一些重要的科学依据 [2,17,21,22] 。 左旋葡聚糖(1,6-脱水-β-D-吡喃葡萄糖，levoglucosan)主要来自于植物体纤 维素在火燃烧温度高于 300 ℃时的高温热裂解过程，在地表环境中广泛存在且 具有较好的稳定性 [23] ，通常被作为示踪植被火燃烧排放的分子标志物 [16,24] 。本文 对左旋葡聚糖的主要来源，在大气-水体-雪冰和沉积物等主要环境介质中的记录 与其揭示植被火燃烧变化研究进展综述，以对左旋葡聚糖的产生、传输、沉积与 记录形成较为系统的科学认识。 考虑到不同环境介质中左旋葡聚糖含量的检测方 法已被系统评述 [23][24][25][26] ，本文不再赘述。 2. 左旋葡聚糖及主要来源 左旋葡聚糖主要来自于植物体纤维素和半纤维素在火燃烧时的高温热裂解 过程 [16,18,23] 。纤维素和半纤维素是由葡萄糖组成的大分子多糖，是植物体细胞壁 的主要结构成分 [18] ，通常能够占植物体碳含量的 50%以上 [27] 。燃烧温度是影响 左旋葡聚糖生成的主要因素 [28] 。植被火燃烧发生时，燃烧温度升高会伴随着植 物体纤维素的水解、氧化、脱水和裂解等过程 [29] 。燃烧温度低于 300 ℃时，纤 维素经过解聚、脱水、碎片化和氧化等过程，此时左旋葡聚糖产量较低；燃烧温 度在 300 ℃左右时，经过转糖基化键裂、裂变和歧化反应等过程，形成左旋葡 聚糖及其同分异构体半乳聚糖和甘露聚糖…”