Quantification of triglyceride content in oleaginous materials using thermo-gravimetry
2017
Maddi, Balakrishna | Vadlamani, Agasteswar | Viamajala, Sridhar | Varanasi, Sasidhar
Laboratory analytical methods for quantification of triglyceride content in oleaginous biomass samples, especially microalgae, require toxic chemicals and/or organic solvents and involve multiple steps. In this paper, a simple triglyceride quantification method that uses thermo-gravimetry is described. This method is based on the observation that triglycerides undergo near-complete volatilization/degradation over a narrow temperature interval with a derivative weight loss peak at 420°C when heated in an inert atmosphere. Degradation of the other constituents of oleaginous biomass (protein and carbohydrates) is largely complete after prolonged exposure of samples at 320°C. Based on these observations, the triglyceride content of oleaginous biomass was estimated by using the following two-step process. In Step 1, samples were heated to 320°C and kept isothermal at this temperature for 15min. In Step 2, samples were heated from 320°C to 420°C and then kept isothermal at 420°C for 15min. Our results show that mass loss in step 2 correlated well with triglyceride content estimates obtained from conventional techniques for diverse microalgae and oilseed samples.
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