Simple analysis of odorous fatty acids in distillery effluents by capillary electrophoresis

The separation of short-chain carboxylic acids using capillary electrophoresis was already presented in several previ- ous studies. As this method appears as a simple and fast alternative to more classical chromatographic approaches, this paper describes its application to the analysis of malodorous fatty acids in distillery effluents. The operating conditions were modified in order to improve the sensitivity. A 100 mu m ID capillary combined with injection by electromigration led to detection limits in aqueous samples from 10 to 45 mu g.L-1. The ability of this method to analyse air samples was also examined. The detection limits obtained are in the order of mu g.m(-3). This methodology was then applied to monitor the olfactory pollution of a distillery. The results obtained enabled a modification of the process to be proposed in order to reduce the malodorous emissions.