Patent ID: 7985597

Claim:
A continuous process for providing a gaseous substance for the isotopic or elemental analysis of chemical elements or compounds, comprising the steps of: a) providing a liquid starting substance containing the chemical elements or compounds; b) continuously mixing a stream of said liquid starting substance with a stream of a reagent substance, forming a mixture; c) continuously reacting at least one constituent of said liquid starting substance with at least one constituent of said reagent substance in said mixture resulting in the formation of at least one gaseous reaction product and a liquid residual substance, wherein said gaseous reaction product contains information about the chemical elements or compounds of said liquid starting substance; d) continuously separating said gaseous reaction product from said liquid residual substance thereby resulting in the formation of a stream of said liquid residual substance and a separate stream of said gaseous reaction product; and e) using the stream of said gaseous reaction product for said isotopic or elemental analysis of the chemical elements or compounds.