Determination of dihydroxyacetone and glycerol in fermentation process by GC after n-methylimidazole catalyzed acetylation.

A gas chromatographic method that accurately measures glycerol and dihydroxyacetone from a fermentation broth is described in this paper. The method incorporates a sample derivatization reaction using n-methylimidazole as catalyst in the presence of acetic anhydride. Resulting derivatives are separated on a DB-5 capillary column and flame ionization detector. Results show that 10 μL n-methylimidazole and 75 μL acetic anhydride are sufficient to complete the acetylation for glycerol and dihydroxyacetone at room temperature for 5 min. The present method exhibits good linearity at a concentration range of 1-100 g/L with excellent regression (R(2) > 0.9997). The limits of detection are 0.025 and 0.013 g/L for dihydroxyacetone and glycerol, respectively. The method has been successfully applied to the monitoring and control of the fermentation process, and recoveries are in the range of 95.5-98.8% with relative standard deviations below 1%.