The determination of carbon dioxide in fermenting mixtures

In connection with a research on enzymic behavior it was necessary to develop a simple and expeditious method for the determination of the carbon dioxide formed during fermentations. The most suitable method of carbon dioxide analysis appeared to be the procedure evolved by Cain and Maxwell [1] for the determination of carbon in steel. They absorbed the carbon dioxide, formed by combustion, in known volumes of barium hydroxide solution and followed the precipitation of barium carbonate by measurements of the electrical conductivity of the solution. The idea has been applied by Spoehr and McGee [2,3] to the determination of carbon dioxide in their studies on plant respiration. This paper describes the development of this general method so as to render it applicable to studies on fermentation.