GC/MS method for determining carbon isotope enrichment
and concentration of underivatized short-chain fatty acids
by direct aqueous solution injection of biogas digester samples
In anaerobic digestion of organic matter,several metabolic pathways are involved during the simultaneous production and consumption of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) in general and acetate in particular.
Understanding the role of each pathway requires both the determination of the concentration and isotope enrichment of intermediates in conjunction with isotope labeled substrates.The objective of this
study was to establish a rapid and simple GC/MS method for determining the isotope enrichment of
acetate and concentration of underivatized short-chain fatty acids(SCFA) in biogas digester samples by
direct liquid injection of acidified aqueous samples. Sample preparation involves only acidification,
centrifugation and filtration oftheaqueoussolutionfollowedbydirectinjectionoftheaqueoussuper-
natant solutionontoapolarcolumn.WiththesamplepreparationandGC/MSconditionsemployed,
well-resolvedandsharppeaksofunderivatizedSCFAwereobtainedinareasonablyshorttime.Good
recovery(96.6–102.3%)aswellaslowdetection(4–7 mmol/L) andquantification limits(14–22 mmol/L)
wereobtainedforallthe6SCFAstudied.Goodlinearitywasachievedforbothconcentrationandisotope
enrichment measurementwithregressioncoefficients higherthan0.9978and0.9996,respectively.The
method hasagoodintra-andinter-dayprecisionwitharelativestandarddeviation(RSD)below6%for
determining thetracer-to-traceeratio(TTR)ofboth[2-13C]acetate and[U-13C]acetate.Ithasalsoagood
intra– and inter-dayprecisionwithaRSDbelow6%and5%fordeterminingtheconcentrationofstandard
solution andbiogasdigestersamples,respectively.Acidification ofbiogasdigestersampleswithoxalic
acid providedthelowpHrequiredfortheprotonationofSCFAandthus,allowstheextractionofSCFA
from thecomplexsamplematrix.Moreover,oxalicacidwasthesourceofformicacidwhichwaspro-
duced intheinjectorsetathightemperature.TheproducedformicacidpreventedtheadsorptionofSCFA
in thecolumn,therebyeliminatingpeaktailingandghostpeaks.TheapplicabilityofthevalidatedGC/MS
method fordeterminingtheconcentrationofacetateandits 13C isotopeenrichmentinanaerobicdigester
samples wastestedandtheresultsdemonstratedthesuitabilityofthismethodforidentifyingthe
metabolic pathwaysinvolvedindegradationandproductionofacetate.