Advances in Gas Chromatography: A Virtual Symposium 2026

Learn to improve your practical skills from leading separation scientists.

Register Free: https://www.chromatographyonline.com/lcgc_w/advances

Event Overview:

LCGC International is pleased to present a one-day virtual symposium focusing on recent advances in gas chromatography. The first session will include a series of presentations from leading practitioners in the field, followed by an interactive question-and-answer (Q&A) session with the speakers to address audience questions. In the afternoon, leading instrument suppliers will discuss how their GC technologies can help you perform more effectively in practice.

Attendance is free. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from leading practitioners from the world of separation science and push your skills forward.

Event Agenda

Morning Session: 9:00 AM EST | 2:00 PM GMT | 3:00 PM CET

9:00 am EST Advances and Challenges in Micro- and Nanoplastics Analysis: Pyrolysis–GC–MS for Environmental and Human Exposure Assessment
Dr. Elvis Okoffo, ARC DECRA Research Fellow, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

9:30 am EST The Nitrogen Advantage: Combining Separation Power with Selective Detection
Dr. Yujuan Hua, Associate Research Scientist, Analytical Sciences, Enterprise Innovation, and Growth (R&D), Dow Chemical, USA

Nitrogen compounds are essential to many industrial processes, serving as chemical precursors, process additives, performance enhancers, and functional materials. Accurate measurement of these molecules is critical for process monitoring and product quality but remains challenging due to their activity and adsorptivity, and their presence across a wide concentration range in complex matrices. Ozone-induced chemiluminescence provides a reliable analytical approach for detecting volatile and semi-volatile nitrogen compounds. A new-generation nitrogen chemiluminescence detector, with a re-engineered burner assembly, integrated electronics and detector module, and highly accurate flow controls, improves sensitivity, reliability, sustained performance, user experience, and ease of maintenance. Concurrently, new column technology for nitrogen compounds has been developed to enhance chromatographic performance. The synergy of these advancements enables reliable measurement of nitrogen compounds in key industrial applications, including the monitoring of carbon dioxide- and sulfur-removal chemicals, corrosion inhibitors for water treatment, and oxygen scavengers used to prevent polymerization of reactive products. The methodology can also characterize highly volatile compounds such as ammonia and nitrogen oxides.

10:00 am EST Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Gas Chromatography: Practical Lessons from Helium and Hydrogen
Ivan Hetman, Researcher in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Region Östergötland; Associate Professor (Adjunct), Linköping University

Gas chromatography (GC) laboratories are increasingly reconsidering their use of helium because of supply limitations, rising costs, and sustainability concerns. Hydrogen is often proposed as an alternative carrier gas, but its environmental advantages depend on more than simply replacing one gas with another. This presentation will discuss practical lessons from a life cycle assessment comparing helium and hydrogen as GC carrier gases. Particular attention will be given to the relative importance of gas production, electricity consumption, chromatographic run time, and laboratory operating conditions. The results show that shorter analysis times can be a major factor in reducing the environmental footprint of GC and that sustainability decisions should consider the analytical method as a whole rather than focusing only on the carrier gas itself. The presentation will also discuss practical implications for laboratories considering a transition from helium to hydrogen.

10:30 am EST Untangling the Complexity: GC-Based Molecular Characterization of Nitrogen- and Oxygen-Rich Bio-Oils
Josephine Lübeck, Research Scientist, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Bio-oils derived from thermochemical conversion of sewage sludge and biomass are ultra-complex mixtures containing up to 40 wt% oxygen and 12 wt% nitrogen. This heteroatomic burden reduces upgrading efficiency and increases the risk of fouling and catalyst deactivation during hydrotreatment. Detailed molecular characterization is therefore essential, yet challenging because these matrices also cause severe chromatographic co-elution and matrix interferences.
To address this, we present gas chromatography (GC)-centered analytical workflows to resolve bio-oil complexity across the volatile and semi-volatile domains. Full evaporation–headspace–GC–mass spectrometry (FE–HS–GC–MS) provides high-throughput screening of volatile to semi-volatile compounds. By optimizing incubation temperature and dilution ratios, the method minimized matrix effects and captured more than 200 peaks, including phenols, cresols, and methoxy-phenols missed by static headspace.
For less volatile acidic and basic compounds, derivatization and pH-controlled liquid–liquid extraction strategies were developed. Additionally, normal-phase silica solid-phase extraction (SPE) separated bio-oils into polarity fractions, isolating non-polar hydrocarbons from intermediate-polarity nitrogen heterocycles, phenolics, anilines and related compounds. This substantially reduced matrix effects prior to comprehensive two-dimensional GC–high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC×GC–HRMS) analysis. The resulting structured two-dimensional chromatograms enabled group-type separation of, e.g., indoles, phenols, carbazoles and quinolines. Compound identification was supported by retention indices, accurate-mass confirmations, and pixel-based analysis for semi-quantitative tracking across hydrotreatment severity.
Together, these workflows deliver class-resolved insight into bio-oil composition and provide a practical analytical basis for improving catalytic upgrading.


11:00 am EST High-Throughput Automated Offline µ-SPE for Cleanup of Complex QuEChERS Extracts in GC-Based Multi-Residue Analysis of Pesticides
Ivan Aloisi, Food Safety Scientist, Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR), part of Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Analysis of pesticide residues in food can be considered a tedious task. What makes it challenging is often the combination of low concentrations of the analytes of interest (µg kg⁻¹) and high concentrations of matrix components (interferences). Especially in gas chromatography (GC)-based methods, co-extractants can deteriorate instrumental method performance. Improvement of the robustness of the GC–tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS) performance can be achieved in several ways, including cleanup using sorbents that can remove matrix components from the raw extract. Sorbent materials can be used in dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) or in solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges. d-SPE is quick, while SPE cartridges can be more effective but involve a more laborious manual procedure. Recently, a miniaturized and automated version of SPE, micro-SPE (µ-SPE), was introduced. It can be coupled online to any chromatographic system or operated offline in a benchtop configuration. The aim of this work is to investigate and optimize the use of offline automated µ-SPE cleanup for the analysis of GC-amenable pesticides in complex food/feed matrices, such as wheat, linseeds and insects.
Different cartridge compositions, loading volumes and elution rates were tested and compared in order to find the best conditions for the cleanup of highly complex quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe (QuEChERS) raw extracts. Furthermore, the manual d-SPE and automated µ-SPE procedures were compared in terms of analytical performance, throughput and operational costs.

11:30 am EST Determination of MOSH and MOAH by Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography: Practical Insights, Advantages and Limitations
Aleksandra Gorska (Ir.), Teaching Assistant and PhD Candidate in Analytical Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium

Mineral oil saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons (MOSH and MOAH) are ubiquitous petroleum-derived food contaminants whose determination remains analytically challenging. Liquid chromatography–gas chromatography–flame ionization detection (LC–GC–FID) is the conventional technique for their determination, but its limited selectivity can complicate interpretation in the presence of coeluting interferences. Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) offers a complementary level of information through its structured two-dimensional chromatograms, allowing interferences to be more readily recognized while providing insight into the composition of the MOSH/MOAH fractions. This talk focuses on the practical use of GC×GC for MOSH/MOAH analysis, from qualitative confirmation to quantitative assessment, and discusses both the added value and the limitations of the approach.

12:00 pm EST Question-and-Answer Session

Experts from leading chromatography companies describe how new chromatography technologies can improve your methods in practice.

Speakers:

Dr Elvis Okoffo
ARC DECRA Research Fellow
The University of Queensland

Dr Yujuan Hua
Associate Research Scientist
Dow Chemical, USA

Ivan Hetman
Researcher in Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Region Östergötland

Josephine Lübeck
Research Scientist
University of Copenhagen

Ivan Aloisi
Food Safety Scientist
Wageningen Food Safety Research

Aleksandra Gorska (Ir.)
Teaching Assistant and PhD Candidate in Analytical Chemistry
University of Liège

Register Free: https://www.chromatographyonline.com/lcgc_w/advances