Comparison between Dumas Combustion Method and Continuous Flow Method for Determination of Total Nitrogen in Reconstituted Tobacco

Aiming to improve efficiency of determination of total nitrogen in samples of reconstituted tobacco, a comparative study between Dumas combustion method (D method) and continuous flow method (L method) was carried out, and a preliminary investigation to use the results obtained by D method instead of those found by L method, through certain conversion, was also made. Good precision and accuracy were obtained by either of the 2 methods, and the results of total nitrogen found by the D method were generally higher. But on the whole, the D method had obvious advantages on having higher analytical efficiency, lower labouring intensity and less environmental pollution. It was shown that the results found by D method could be converted to values of L method by applying the ratio coefficient K (K=DN/LN).