Patent ID: 8489340

Claim:
A method of using a NIR model to predict the amount of accessible carbohydrate material in a feedstock sample, comprising: a) collecting NIR spectral data from a test feedstock sample; b) applying, to said spectral data, a NIR model of accessible carbohydrate calibrated for feedstocks of the same type as said sample, wherein said NIR model is formulated by: i) subjecting a set of biomass calibration feedstock samples to near infrared spectroscopy to produce NIR spectroscopic data from each said sample, each said calibration sample of the same type of feedstock as said test sample; ii) measuring the chemical compositions of each said calibration feedstock sample by wet chemical techniques; iii) measuring the total amount of monosaccharides and disaccharides solubilized by each said calibration feedstock sample after processing under a defined pretreatment condition or defined enzyme load condition; and iv) generating said calibrated NIR model for predicting the amount of accessible carbohydrate in said test feedstock sample processed under said defined pretreatment condition or defined enzyme load condition, from said spectroscopic data, said chemical compositions, and said solubilized mono and disaccharide amounts; and c) predicting the amount of accessible carbohydrate material in said test feedstock sample, based on the results of said applying step, wherein steps b) and c) are performed on a suitably programmed computer.