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A Simple Assay for Monitoring Cellulose in Paper-Spiked Soil

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Abstract

We describe a simple method for measuring cellulose in soil. We used this method to measure the recovery of shredded office paper and pure medium fiber cellulose added to a Helvetia silt loam clay soil. This method consists of solvating cellulose from soil with 77% H2SO4 and analysis of the cellulose recovered by the phenol-sulfuric acid carbohydrate assay. Unlike previous related methods the modifications we propose allow good recovery of cellulose (~99%) and eliminate the need to autoclave the samples. We verified this method on soil spiked with up to 12% cellulose and found a good linear relationship between the amounts of cellulose added relative to that recovered. With proper fragmentation and dilution of the acid-treated soil samples, higher concentrations can be easily measured. We propose this technique as a robust and high throughput means to monitor the degradation of cellulose in paper spiked soil.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Portland State University and Bokashicycle LLC for support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TGA LLC, 13851 Verte Court, Lake Oswego, OR, 97034, USA

    Terrence R. Green

  2. Biology Department, Portland State University, PO Box 751, Portland, OR, 97207, USA

    Radu Popa

Authors
  1. Terrence R. Green
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  2. Radu Popa
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Correspondence to Radu Popa.

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Green, T.R., Popa, R. A Simple Assay for Monitoring Cellulose in Paper-Spiked Soil. J Polym Environ 18, 634–637 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-010-0239-3

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