Analysis of volatiles in tall oil by gas chromatography, flame-photometric detection, flame-ionization detection and mass spectrometry

✍ Scribed by F. Andrawes; T. Chang; R. Scharrer

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 607 KB
• Volume: 468
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1873-3778
• DOI: 10.1016/s0021-9673(00)96312-x

✦ Synopsis

Tall oil is a by-product obtained from the southern kraft pulping process. In order to isolate and detect the odor compounds in tall oil, we concentrated the volatiles, using a gas-phase stripping and adsorption on a thermally stable porous polymer. The volatiles were thermally desorbed onto a high-resolution capillary column. The separated compounds were detected simultaneously by flame-ionization detection and specific sulfur detection. Capillary gas chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry was used for positive confirmation of the eluted compounds.

More than a hundred compounds were identified, about twenty of which were sulfur-containing compounds, causing the malodor of the tall oil. The total sulfur content in tall oil was 470 ppm. Purging with inert gas at 250°C for 24 h removed only 60 ppm of the sulfur present. However, most of the bad odor was removed during the first 30 min of purging. This treatment also improved the color quality of the tall oil.