SAMPLING OF ALCOHOLS, ETHERS, ESTERS AND KETONES IN EMISSIONS FOR GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION

Volatile oxygenated hydrocarbons such as alcohols, esters, ethers and ketones are sampled from flue gases by sorption on the activated charc oal followed by desorption with carbon disulphide. The mass of adsorba te on 500 mg of charcoal should not exceed 1 mg which imposes restrict ion on the volume of air to be sampled. In the case of methanol the us e of 5% acetonitrile as an additive to carbon disulphide is recommende d. For the determination of higher alcohols adsorption on silica gel f ollowed by desorption with water yields the best results. At larger co ncentrations oxygenates call be sampled without enrichment using bubbl er absorbers filled with water or ethanol.