Dear Kim,

Thanks for the information on CO conversion from water and sugar. I have
just started looking at the pyrolysis step for isotope analysis of tree
rings and am trying to attain high proportions of CO following pyrolysis.

I apologise for asking what may be a rather obvious question,
but are the TCD comparisons you describe made with the CO2 and water traps
installed or not?

If they are, could you tell me what yields of CO,CO2,H2O etc. you would
expect running a batch of water/(CHO) type samples WITHOUT these traps,
and if you see an increase in water production/elution from the GC after a
number of analyses?

At present, even at high temperatures 1000C, we appear to be making some
CO2 in our system when pyrolysing cellulose.

Best wishes,

Neil.