Assessing corn stover composition and sources of variability via NIRS

Corn stover, the above-ground, non-grain portion of the crop, is a large, currently available source of biomass that potentially could be collected as a biofuels feedstock. Biomass conversion process economics are directly affected by the overall biochemical conversion yield, which is assumed to be proportional to the carbohydrate content of the feedstock materials used in the process. Variability in the feedstock carbohydrate levels affects the maximum theoretical biofuels yield and may influence the optimum pretreatment or saccharification conditions. The aim of this study is to assess the extent to which commercial hybrid corn stover composition varies and begin to partition the variation among genetic, environmental, or annual influences. A rapid compositional analysis method using near-infrared spectroscopy/partial least squares multivariate modeling (NIR/PLS) was used to evaluate compositional variation among 508 commercial hybrid corn stover samples collected from 47 sites in eight Corn Belt states after the 2001, 2002, and 2003 harvests. The major components of the corn stover, reported as average (standard deviation) % dry weight, whole biomass basis, were glucan 31.9 (2.0), xylan 18.9 (1.3), solubles composite 17.9 (4.1), and lignin (corrected for protein) 13.3 (1.1). We observed wide variability in the major corn stover components. Much of the variation observed in the structural components (on a whole biomass basis) is due to the large variation found in the soluble components. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the harvest year had the strongest effect on corn stover compositional variation, followed by location and then variety. The NIR/PLS rapid analysis method used here is well suited to testing large numbers of samples, as tested in this study, and will support feedstock improvement and biofuels process research.     

Improved multivariate calibration models for corn stover feedstock and dilute-acid pretreated corn stover

We have studied rapid calibration models to predict the composition of a variety of biomass feedstocks by correlating near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic data to compositional data produced using traditional wet chemical analysis techniques. The rapid calibration models are developed using multivariate statistical analysis of the spectroscopic and wet chemical data. This work discusses the latest versions of the NIR calibration models for corn stover feedstock and dilute-acid pretreated corn stover. Measures of the calibration precision and uncertainty are presented. No statistically significant differences (p = 0.05) are seen between NIR calibration models built using different mathematical pretreatments. Finally, two common algorithms for building NIR calibration models are compared; no statistically significant differences (p = 0.05) are seen for the major constituents glucan, xylan, and lignin, but the algorithms did produce different predictions for total extractives. A single calibration model combining the corn stover feedstock and dilute-acid pretreated corn stover samples gave less satisfactory predictions than the separate models.     

Chemometric Techniques Applied for Classification and Quantification of Binary Biodiesel/Diesel Blends

In this paper, three different types of biodiesel, which were synthesized from peanut, corn, and canola oils, were characterized by positive-ion electrospray ionization (ESI) and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS). Different biodiesel/diesel blends containing 2–90% (V/V) of each biodiesel type were prepared and analyzed by near infrared spectroscopy (NIR). In the next step, the chemometric methods of hierarchical clusters analysis (HCA), principal component analysis (PCA), and support vector machines (SVM) were used for exploratory analysis of the different biodiesel samples, and the SVM was able to give the best classification results (correct classification of 50 peanut and 50 corn samples, and only one misclassification out of 49 canola samples). Then, partial least squares (PLS) and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) models were evaluated for biodiesel quantification. Both methods were considered equivalent for quantification purposes based on the values smaller than 5% for the root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) and root mean square of validation (RMSEP), as well as Pearson correlation coefficients of at least 0.969. The combination of NIR to the chemometric techniques of SVM and PLS/MARS was proven to be appropriate to classify and quantify biodiesel from different origins.     

A Partial Least Squares‐Based Consensus Regression Method for the Analysis of Near‐Infrared Complex Spectral Data of Plant Samples

Abstract

A consensus regression approach based on partial least square (PLS) regression, named as cPLS, for calibrating the NIR data was investigated. In this approach, multiple independent PLS models were developed and integrated into a single consensus model. The utility and merits of the cPLS method were demonstrated by comparing its results with those from a regular PLS method in predicting moisture, oil, protein, and starch contents of corn samples using the NIR spectral data. It was found that cPLS was superior to regular PLS with respect to prediction accuracy and robustness.     

近红外光谱法快速测定涂料固化剂中游离甲苯二异氰酸酯含量

用气相色谱分析值为参照,采用近红外透射光谱（NIR）技术采集相应样品的NIR光谱,研究了涂料固化剂中游离甲苯二异氰酸酯（TDI）含量的快速测定分析方法。 并从120个固化剂样品中挑选出109个代表性的样品建模,选择7320~7250 cm-1和8485~8370 cm-1波段区间,用偏最小二乘法(PLS)和完全交互验证方式建立TDI含量的预测模型。 结果表明,固化剂中游离甲苯二异氰酸酯含量和近红外光谱之间存在较好的相关性,其预测模型的校正集均方差（RMSEC）为0.0815,验证集均方差（RMSEP）为0.0715,模型性能良好。 近红外光谱法可快速准确测定游离甲苯二异氰酸酯（TDI）含量,用于固化剂样品快速分析。     

应用光谱技术无损检测油菜叶片中乙酰乳酸合成酶

应用可见/近红外光谱技术实现了油菜叶片中乙酰乳酸合成酶(ALS)的快速无损检测.对99个油菜样本进行光谱扫描,经过平滑、变量标准化、一阶求导等预处理后,应用偏最小二乘法(PLS)建立了ALS的预测模型.同时提取有效特征变量,作为反向传输人工神经网络(BPNN)和最小二乘-支持向量机(LS-SVM)的输入值,并建立相应的模型.用66个样本建模,33个样本验证.结果表明,LS-SVM模型能够获得最优的预测结果,预测集样本的相关系数(r)、预测标准差(RMSEP)和偏差(Bias)分别为0.998、 0.715和0.079,获得了满意的预测精度.结果表明,应用可见/近红外光谱技术结合LS-SVM检测油菜中乙酰乳酸合成酶是可行的,并能获得满意的预测精度,为进一步应用光谱技术进行油菜生长状况的大田监测奠定了基础.     

Construction of global and robust near-infrared calibration models based on hybrid calibration sets using Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) models built on a particular instrument are often invalid on other instruments due to spectral inconsistencies between the instruments. In the present work, global and robust NIR calibration models were constructed by partial least square (PLS) regression based on hybrid calibration sets, which are composed of both primary and secondary spectra. Three datasets were used as case studies. The first consisted of 72 radix scutellaria samples measured on two NIR spectrometers with known baicalin content. The second was composed of 80 corn samples measured on two instruments with known moisture, oil, and protein concentrations. The third dataset included 279 primary samples of tobacco with known nicotine content and 78 secondary samples of tobacco with known nicotine concentrations. The effect of the number of secondary spectra in the hybrid calibration sets and the methods for selecting secondary spectra on the PLS model performance were investigated by comparing the results obtained from different calibration sets. This study shows that the global and robust calibration models accurately predicted both primary and secondary samples as long as the ratios of the number of primary spectra to the number of secondary spectra were less than 22. The models performance was not influenced by the selection method of the secondary spectra. The hybrid calibration sets included the primary spectral information and also the secondary spectra; information, rendering the constructed global and robust models applicable to both primary and secondary instruments.     

An expeditious method for determining particle size distribution by near infrared spectroscopy: Comparison of PLS2 and ANN models

The particle size distribution of a solid product can be crucial parameter considering its application to different kinds of processes. The influence of particle size on near infrared (NIR) spectra has been used to develop effective alternative methods to traditional ones in order to determine this parameter. In this work, we used the chemometrical techniques partial least squares 2 (PLS2) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) to simultaneously predict several variables to the rapid construction of particle size distribution curves. The PLS2 algorithm relies on linear relations between variables, while the ANN technique can model non-linear systems.Samples were passed through sieves of different sieve opening in order to separate several size fractions that were used to construct two types of particle size distribution curves. The samples were recorded by NIR and their spectra were used with PLS2 and ANN to develop two calibration models for each. The correlation coefficients and relative standard errors of prediction (RSEP) have been used to assess the goodness of fit and accuracy of the results.The four calibration models studied provided statistically identical results based on RSEP values. Therefore, the combined use of NIR spectroscopy and PLS2 or ANN calibration models allows determining the particle size distributions accurately. The results obtained by ANN or PLS2 are statistically similar.     

Quantitative Analysis of Catalpol in Chinese Patent Medicine Lixin Pill by Near-infrared Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy

Lixin pill is a typical Chinese patent medicine with anti-rheumatic heart disease activity that has been widely used in clinical practice. Therefore it is very important to detect the concentration of catalpol, as the main component of the active ingredient. Near-infrared reflectance（NIR） spectroscopy was used to study the content of catalpol in the unprocessed Chinese patent medicine of Lixin pills. NIR is applied to quantitatively analyze 77 sam- ples, which were randomly divided into a calibration set containing 61 samples and a prediction set containing 16 samples. To get a satisfying result, partial least squares（PLS） regression was utilized to establish quantitative models. In PLS regression, the values of coefficient of determination（R2） and root mean square error of cross-validation （RMSECV） of PLS regression are 0.9419 and 0.0216, respectively. The process of establishing model, parameters of model, and prediction results were also discussed in detail（root mean square error of prediction is 0.0164）. The over- all results show that NIR spectroscopy can be efficiently utilized for the rapid and accurate analysis of routine chemical compositions in the Chinese patent medicine of Lixin pills. The prediction set suggests that this quantitative analysis model has excellent generalization ability and prediction precision. Accordingly, the result can provide tech- nical support for the further analysis of catalpol in unprocessed Lixin pill. Moreover, this study supplied technical support for the further analysis of other Chinese patent medicine samples.     

复杂样品近红外光谱定量分析模型的构建方法

针对复杂样品近红外光谱分析中校正集的设计问题, 探讨了标准样品参与复杂样品建模的可行性. 通过标准样品和复杂基质样品共同构建的偏最小二乘(PLS)模型, 考察了波段筛选和建模参数对预测结果的影响. 结果表明, 采用PLS方法建立定量模型时, 校正集样品性质应该尽量与预测集样品相似, 当样品的性质相差较大时, 适当增加校正集样品的差异性可使模型具有更强的预测能力. 同时, 波段优选对提高预测结果的准确性具有重要的意义.     

基于灰狼算法的近红外光谱变量选择方法研究

基于群体智能的灰狼优化(GWO)算法具有参数少、结构简单、易于实现的优点,但在光谱领域的应用较少。该研究将GWO算法引入近红外光谱的变量筛选中,以玉米数据为例,考察了GWO算法中狼群性能、迭代次数、狼群数量及运算效率,并建立了偏最小二乘(PLS)模型对玉米样品中蛋白质、脂肪、水分以及淀粉含量的测定。结果显示,GWO算法运算效率很高,经过参数调优后建立PLS模型,其蛋白质、脂肪、水分及淀粉的保留变量数分别为19、19、14、34,预测均方根误差(RMSEP)从全波长PLS建模的0.245 8、0.122 4、0.339 8、1.105 8分别下降到0.147 7、0.080 1、0.176 2、0.739 8,分别下降了40%、35%、48%、33%,相关系数也相应地提高。因此,GWO算法不仅优化速度快,选择变量数少,还可以显著提高PLS模型的预测精度,是一种近红外光谱变量选择的有效方法。     

近红外光谱法同时测定卷烟纸中的钾和钠

为适应快速分析卷烟纸中K和Na含量的需要,应用傅立叶变换近红外(FT-NIR)光谱法和常规化学分析方法分别测定了101个卷烟纸样品的光谱数据和K及Na含量.以光谱数据和检测数据为基础,利用偏最小二乘法建立了预测卷烟纸中K和Na含量的数学模型,并进行了样品扫描条件和模型的优化.结果表明:每个纸样取14张扫描比较适宜;K和Na建模的适宜谱区范围均为4 000-7 700 cm<'-1>;一阶导数+Norris导数滤波法进行光谱预处理;K和Na优化模型的R分别为0.990 6和0.986 5,RMSECV为0.065 7和0.035 9,其预测值与化学测定值的平均相对偏差各为9.63%和9.03%.     

The Effect of Drying Temperature on the Composition of Biomass

The compositional quality of different lignocellulosic feedstocks influences their performance and potential demand at a biorefinery. Many analytical protocols for determining the composition or performance characteristics of biomass involve a drying step, where the drying temperature can vary depending on the specific protocol. To get reliable data, it is important to determine the correct drying temperature to vaporize the water without negatively impacting the compositional quality of the biomass. A comparison of drying temperatures between 45 °C and 100 °C was performed using wheat straw and corn stover. Near-infrared (NIR) spectra were taken of the dried samples and compared using principal component analysis (PCA). Carbohydrates were analyzed using quantitative saccharification to determine sugar degradation. Analysis of variance was used to determine if there was a significant difference between drying at different temperatures. PCA showed an obvious separation in samples dried at different temperatures due to sample water content. However, quantitative saccharification data shows, within a 95% confidence interval, that there is no significant difference in sugar content for drying temperatures up to 100 °C for wheat straw and corn stover.     

A practical approach for near infrared spectral quantitative analysis of complex samples using partial least squares modeling

The number of latent variables (LVs) or the factor number is a key parameter in PLS modeling to obtain a correct prediction. Although lots of work have been done on this issue, it is still a difficult task to determine a suitable LV number in practical uses. A method named independent factor diagnostics (IFD) is proposed for investigation of the contribution of each LV to the predicted results on the basis of discussion about the determination of LV number in PLS modeling for near infrared (NIR) spectra of complex samples. The NIR spectra of three data sets of complex samples, including a public data set and two tobacco lamina ones, are investigated. It is shown that several high order LVs constitute main contributions to the predicted results, albeit the contribution of the low order LVs should not be neglected in the PLS models. Therefore, in practical uses of PLS for analysis of complex samples, it may be better to use a slightly large LV number for NIR spectral analysis of complex samples. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 20775036 & 20835002)     

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of oxytetracycline by near-infrared spectroscopy

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, in combination with chemometrics, enable the analysis of raw materials without time-consuming sample preparation methods. The aim of our work was to estimate critical parameters in the analytical specification of oxytetracycline, and consequently the development of a method for quantification and qualification of these parameters by NIR spectroscopy. A Karl Fischer (K.F.) titration to determine the water content, a colorimetric assay method, and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy to identify the oxytetracycline base, were used as reference methods, respectively. Multivariate calibration was performed on NIR spectral data using principal component analysis (PCA), partial least-squares (PLS 1) and principal component regression (PCR) chemometric methods. Multivariate calibration models for NIR spectroscopy have been developed. Using PCA and the Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) approach, we established the cluster model for the determination of sample identity. PLS 1 and PCR regression methods were applied to develop the calibration models for the determination of water content and the assay of the oxytetracycline base. Comparing the PLS and PCR regression methods we found out that the PLS is better established by NIR, especially as the spectroscopic data (NIR spectra) are highly collinear and there are many wavelengths due to non-selective wavelengths. The calibration models for NIR spectroscopy are convenient alternatives to the colorimetric method and to the K.F. method, as well as to FT-IR spectroscopy, in the routine control of incoming material.     

Nondestructive determination of compound amoxicillin powder by NIR spectroscopy with the aid of chemometrics

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, in combination with chemometrics, enables nondestructive analysis of solid samples without time-consuming sample preparation methods. A new method for the nondestructive determination of compound amoxicillin powder drug via NIR spectroscopy combined with an improved neural network model based on principal component analysis (PCA) and radial basis function (RBF) neural networks is investigated. The PCA technique is applied to extraction relevant features from lots of spectra data in order to reduce the input variables of the RBF neural networks. Various optimum principal component analysis-radial basis function (PCA-RBF) network models based on conventional spectra and preprocessing spectra (standard normal variate (SNV) and multiplicative scatter correction (MSC)) have been established and compared. Principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS) multivariate calibrations are also used, which are compared with PCA-RBF neural networks. Experiment results show that the proposed PCA-RBF method is more efficient than PCR and PLS multivariate calibrations. And the PCA-RBF approach with SNV preprocessing spectra is found to provide the best performance.     

Fast quantitative detection of sesame oil adulteration by near-infrared spectroscopy and chemometric models

Adulteration of foods has been known to exist for a long time and various analytical tests have been reported to address this problem. Among them, authenticity of sesame oil has attracted much attention. Near-infrared (NIR) spectral quantitative detection models of sesame oil adulterated with other oils are constructed by chemometric methods, i.e., competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS), elastic component regression (ECR) and partial least squares (PLS). Sixty samples adulterated with different proportions of five kinds of other oils of lower price were scanned by a Fourier-transform-NIR spectrometer and the NIR spectra were collected in 4500–10000 cm⁻¹ region by transmission mode. All samples were divided into the training set and an independent test set. Model population analysis has also been carried out and confirms the importance of selecting representative samples. The experimental results indicate that the PLS model using only 10 variables from CARS and the ECR model show similar performance and both are superior to the full-spectrum PLS model. CARS focuses on selecting variables and ECR focuses on optimizing the parameters, implying that both roads lead to the same destination. It seems that NIR technique combined with CARS or ECR is feasible for rapidly detecting sesame oil adulterated with other vegetable oils.     

Fungal Cellulase/Xylanase Production and Corresponding Hydrolysis Using Pretreated Corn Stover as Substrates

Three pretreated corn stover (ammonia fiber expansion, dilute acid, and dilute alkali) were used as carbon source to culture Trichoderma reesei Rut C-30 for cellulase and xylanase production. The results indicated that the cultures on ammonia fiber expansion and alkali pretreated corn stover had better enzyme production than the acid pretreated ones. The consequent enzymatic hydrolysis was performed applying fungal enzymes on pretreated corn stover samples. Tukey’s statistical comparisons exhibited that there were significant differences on enzymatic hydrolysis among different combination of fungal enzymes and pretreated corn stover. The higher sugar yields were achieved by the enzymatic hydrolysis of dilute alkali pretreated corn stover.     

Screening of humic and fulvic acids in estuarine sediments by near-infrared spectrometry

Diffuse reflectance near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) combined with partial least squares (PLS) data treatment has been employed for the rapid and nondestructive determination of sedimentary humic substances. Forty one samples of surface estuarine sediments, taken during distinct seasonal periods from different locations across Ria de Arousa (northwest of Spain), were scanned at wavelengths from 833 to 2,976 nm (12,000 to 3,360 cm⁻¹). Twenty four samples were randomly selected, from previous hierarchical cluster analysis of their NIR spectra, for the calibration set, and the 17 remaining samples were assigned to the validation set. NIR spectra of calibration samples were correlated to measured values of humic acids (HAs) and fulvic acids (FAs), which ranged from 1.53 to 28.17 mg/g and from 0.37 to 2.45 mg/g, respectively, using PLS regression and multiplicative scattering correction on the raw and first-derivative NIR spectra, respectively. Low root mean square error of prediction values of 4.3 mg HA/g sediment and 0.25 mg FA/g sediment were obtained. Good residual prediction deviation values of 1.16 and 1.2 were obtained for HA and FA, respectively, allowing the PLS models built to be considered as appropriate tools for screening purposes. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A consensus successive projections algorithm – multiple linear regression method for analyzing near infrared spectra

The successive projections algorithm (SPA) is widely used to select variables for multiple linear regression (MLR) modeling. However, SPA used only once may not obtain all the useful information of the full spectra, because the number of selected variables cannot exceed the number of calibration samples in the SPA algorithm. Therefore, the SPA-MLR method risks the loss of useful information. To make a full use of the useful information in the spectra, a new method named “consensus SPA-MLR” (C-SPA-MLR) is proposed herein. This method is the combination of consensus strategy and SPA-MLR method. In the C-SPA-MLR method, SPA-MLR is used to construct member models with different subsets of variables, which are selected from the remaining variables iteratively. A consensus prediction is obtained by combining the predictions of the member models. The proposed method is evaluated by analyzing the near infrared (NIR) spectra of corn and diesel. The results of C-SPA-MLR method showed a better prediction performance compared with the SPA-MLR and full-spectra PLS methods. Moreover, these results could serve as a reference for combination the consensus strategy and other variable selection methods when analyzing NIR spectra and other spectroscopic techniques.