I did the characterization of the biomass. The CHN value of before and after hydrolysis of the plant biomass was compared.The hydrolyzed biomass shows an increase in C and H, but decrease in N as compared to unhydrolyzed biomass. Is that possible?
Dear Lopa,
Hydrolysis usually means the cleavage of chemical bonds by the addition of water. So if we do a total massbalance, as we are not adding C, total C cannot change, nor does N. Concentrations might change, but total C and total N not.
This as a start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrolysis
http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryglossary/g/Hydrolysis-Definition.htm
best regards
Johannes
Yes it is possible. Hydrolysis will remove easily soluble materials like hemicelluloses, extractives, proteins (N), waxes etc. As a result of that, the carbon will proportionally increase (not physically increase) due to the removal of the other components. If you measure the exact amount of biomass used before hydrolysis and after, you will notice the change in quantity due to the solubilisation of the other components mentioned above. That is the physical aspect. The chemical aspect will also change as you have observed with your elemental analysis measurements.
Since hydrolysis process does not add carbon and nitrogen to the material, the major difference in the mass balance of the elemental composition will be based on their relative proportions. Hydrogen content will increase relatively to the other elemental components since hydrolysis process adds hydrogen to the biomass. However, based on what Luvuyo wrote, if nitrogen is soluble, then a percentage of it dissolves into the solution and hence leading to the change in proportion of the elemental composition.