title: Near-infrared analysis of ground barley for use as a feedstock for fuel ethanol production.
abstract: The objective of this study was to explore the potential of near-infrared spectroscopy for determining the compositional quality properties of barley as a feedstock for fuel ethanol production and to compare the prediction accuracy between calibration models obtained using a Fourier transform near-infrared system (FT-NIR) and a dispersive near-infrared system. The total sample set contained 206 samples of three types of barley, hull-less, malt, and hulled varieties, which were grown at various locations in the eastern U.S. from 2002 to 2005 years. A new hull-less barley variety, Doyce, which was specially bred for potential use in ethanol production, was included in the sample set. One hundred and thirty-eight barley samples were used for calibration and sixty-eight were used for validation. Ground barley samples were scanned on both a FTNIR spectrometer (10 000 to 4000 cm(-1) at 4 cm(-1) resolution) and a dispersive NIR spectrometer (400 to 2498 nm at 10 nm resolution), respectively. Six grain components, moisture, starch, beta-glucan, protein, oil, and ash content, were analyzed as parameters of barley quality. Principal component analysis showed that barley samples could be classified by their types: hull-less, malt, and hulled. Partial least squares regression indicated that both FT-NIR and dispersive NIR spectroscopy have the potential to determine quality properties of barley with an acceptable accuracy, except for beta-glucan content. There was no predictive advantage in using a high-resolution FT-NIR instrument over a dispersive system for most components of barley.
authors.affiliation: Richard B. Russell Agricultural Research Center/ARS, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Athens, GA 30605, USA. miryeong.sohn@ars.usda.gov
authors.forename: Miryeong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Himmelsbach
authors.forename: Franklin E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Barton
authors.forename: Carl A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Griffey
authors.forename: Wynse
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.forename: Kevin B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Hicks