Analysis of Rums with a Preparative-Capillary System Employing a Newly Developed Trap-Splitter

Abstract

Commercial rums were analyzed by means of a trap-splitter developed in the Rum Pilot Plant, interconnected with a 3 m X 12.7 mm o. d. stainless steel 316 column packed with 10% Carbowax 20M on acid washed 60/80 mesh Chromosorb W, and a 91 m X 0.25 mm i.d. stainless steel 316 capillary Golay column coated with polyethylene glycol (ucon) 75 H 90,000. The preparative column, located in a different chromatograph, was used to prepare concentrated fractions of rums which separate either prior to ethyl alcohol or after isoamyl alcohol. After collection in the gas chromatographic preparative trap-splitter, sensitive independent separations of both fractions with the trap-splitter and the capillary Golay column showed at least 10 congeners with retention times lower than that of ethyl alcohol, and about 50 congeners beginning with isoamyl alcohol.