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In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of applications of Fourier-transform mid-infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy for the characterization of environmental samples and prediction of some of their properties whose measurement has traditionally involved time-consuming and costly methods. However, there are several different mid-infrared techniques available, and there is a gap in knowledge regarding the best-suited technique for recording informative spectra of different types of environmental samples. This study compared the three most widespread FTIR techniques using solid and liquid samples. A total of 11 environmental samples belonging to four categories were analyzed with attenuated total reflectance (ATR), photoacoustic (PAS), and diffuse reflectance (DR) FTIR spectroscopy. Overall, PAS-FTIR was the best technique, providing a greater amount of information, especially for opaque samples (i.e., organic waste, biochar, and soil), than ATR-FTIR and DR-FTIR spectroscopy. Attenuated total reflectance FTIR provided the best spectra for soft samples, such as plant materials, probably due to their ability to achieve good optical contact with the ATR crystal. Finally, DR-FTIR performed relatively well for most samples but was found to be more sensitive to moisture in the samples, resulting in noise in specific areas, and was less sensitive in bond vibrations related to Si., (© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Environmental Quality © 2020 American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.)

In the last decade, numerous studies have evaluated the benefits of biochar for improving soil quality. The purposes of the current study were to use Fourier transform infrared-photoacoustic spectroscopy (FTIR-PAS) to analyse P species in biochar and to determine the effect of pyrolysis temperature on P speciation. The photoacoustic detector has a range of advantages for the very dark biochar samples in comparison to more traditional reflectance or transmission FTIR detectors. The spectra turned out to be more informative in the regions with P vibrations for biochar produced at temperatures above 400°C, where most of the remaining organic compounds were aromatic and therefore not overlapping with the P vibrations. For biochars produced from the solid fraction of digestate from biogas production, an increase in the pyrolysis temperature led to the formation of a large variety of P species. Hydroxylapatite and tricalcium phosphate were the most dominant P species in the mid to high temperature range (600-900°C), while at 1050°C apatite, iron phosphates, variscite and calcium phosphates were identified. However, the changes in P speciation in biochars produced from bone meal at different temperatures were smaller than in the biochars from digestate. Hydroxylapatite and calcium phosphates were identified in biochar produced at all temperatures, while there was some indication of struvite formation., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Biochemical methane potential (BMP) is a very important characteristic of a given feedstock for optimisation of its use in biogas production. However, the long digestion time needed to determine BMP is the main limitation for the use of this assay during the operation of anaerobic digesters to produce biogas. Fourier transform mid-infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy (FTIR-PAS) was used to predict the BMP of 87 plant biomasses. The developed calibration model was able to explain 81% of the variance in the measured BMP of a selected test set with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 40NLCH4kg(-1) of volatile solids (VS) and a ratio of performance to deviation (RPD) of 2.38. The interpretation of the regression coefficients used in the calibration revealed a positive correlation of BMP with easily degradable compounds (amorphous cellulose, hemicellulose and aliphatic compounds) and a negative correlation with inhibitors of cellulose hydrolysis (lignin, hemicellulose)., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Complexity and high cost are the main limitations for high-throughput screening methods for the estimation of the sugar release from plant materials during bioethanol production. In addition, it is important that we improve our understanding of the mechanisms by which different chemical components are affecting the degradability of plant material. In this study, Fourier transform infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy (FTIR-PAS) was combined with advanced chemometrics to develop calibration models predicting the amount of sugars released after pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of wheat straw during bioethanol production, and the spectra were analysed to identify components associated with recalcitrance., Results: A total of 1122 wheat straw samples from nine different locations in Denmark and one location in the United Kingdom, spanning a large variation in genetic material and environmental conditions during growth, were analysed. The FTIR-PAS spectra of non-pretreated wheat straw were correlated with the measured sugar release, determined by a high-throughput pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis (HTPH) assay. A partial least square regression (PLSR) calibration model predicting the glucose and xylose release was developed. The interpretation of the regression coefficients revealed a positive correlation between the released glucose and xylose with easily hydrolysable compounds, such as amorphous cellulose and hemicellulose. Additionally, a negative correlation with crystalline cellulose and lignin, which inhibits cellulose and hemicellulose hydrolysis, was observed., Conclusions: FTIR-PAS was used as a reliable method for the rapid estimation of sugar release during bioethanol production. The spectra revealed that lignin inhibited the hydrolysis of polysaccharides into monomers, while the crystallinity of cellulose retarded its hydrolysis into glucose. Amorphous cellulose and xylans were found to contribute significantly to the released amounts of glucose and xylose, respectively.

Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy has been used for several years as a fast, low-cost, reliable technique for characterising a large variety of materials. However, the strong influence of sample particle size and the inability to measure the absorption of very dark and opaque samples have made FTIR unsuitable for many waste materials. FTIR-photoacoustic spectroscopy (FTIR-PAS) can eliminate some of the shortcomings of traditional FTIR caused by scattering effects and reflection issues, and recent advances in PAS technology have made commercial instruments available. In this study, FTIR-PAS was used to characterise a wide range of organic waste products and predict their labile carbon fraction, which is normally determined from time-consuming assays. FTIR-PAS was found to be capable of predicting the labile fraction of carbon as efficiently as near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and furthermore of identifying the compounds that are correlated with the predicted parameter, thus facilitating a more mechanistic interpretation., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Simultaneous thermal analysis [i.e., thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)] is frequently used in materials science applications and is increasingly being used to study soil organic matter (SOM) stability. Yet, important questions remain, especially with respect to how the soil mineral matrix affects TG-DSC results, which could confound the interpretation of relationships between thermal and biogeochemical SOM stability. The objective of this study was to explore the viability of using infrared gas analyzer (IRGA) based CO(2)/H(2)O evolved gas analysis (EGA) as a supplement or alternative to TG-DSC to improve the characterization of SOM. Here, we subjected reference samples and a set of 28 diverse soil samples from across the U.S. to TG-DSC coupled with IRGA-based EGA. The results showed the technical validity of coupling TG-DSC and CO(2)-EGA, with more than 80% of the theoretically evolved CO(2)-C recovered during pure cellulose and CaCO(3) analysis. CO(2)-EGA and DSC thermal profiles were highly similar, with correlation coefficients generally >0.90. Additionally, CO(2)/H(2)O-EGA proved useful to improve the accuracy of baseline correction, detect the presence of CaCO(3) in soils, and identify SOM oxidative reactions normally hidden in DSC analysis by simultaneous endothermic reactions of soil minerals. Overall, this study demonstrated that IRGA-based CO(2)/H(2)O-EGA constitutes a valuable complement to conventional TG-DSC analysis for SOM characterization.