Abstract: An anlytical equipment and method for the selective detection of individual oxygenated compounds in complex organic mixtures, in particular fuels, comprising, downstream an equipment of chromatographic separation, a cracking reactor, a catalytic hydrogenation microreactor and a FID detector. The cracking reactor is provided with a catalyst under the form of metal elements, made of palladium, inserted inside the capillary tube though which flows the gas under test. Thanks to the present equipment, the analytical process, based on the specific response of oxygenates to the method of flame ionization detection (O-FID), foresees that the cracking reaction takes place at temperatures below 1000 degrees C. and, consequently allows to keep the cracking reactor at stand-by temperatures below 700 degrees C.

Abstract: The invention relates to a modified-flame thermionic detector for gas chromatographs, of the type including a burner nozzle, an excitation electrode and a collecting electrode. The electrical connections of the nozzle and the excitation electrode can be changed at the operator's will, together with the spatial position of the excitation electrode with respect to the flame and the collector, to find out the presence of certain compounds, leaving all other conditions of analysis performance and detector supply unaltered. This allows obtaining chromatograms of unknown samples under different conditions of the detector configuration, to put into evidence the presence of certain compounds in the sample by comparing peaks of chromatograms obtained under said different operating conditions of the detector.