Over the last thirty years, the Dumas combustion method for analyzing protein content in food has been gaining popularity against the classic Kjeldahl wet chemical digestion and titration method. The Dumas method has several advantages over the Kjeldahl method: it is much faster, with much lower operating costs, no real safety issues, and no toxic waste produced. However, there is a debate over which of the two main approaches to the Dumas method is better: a vertical or a horizontal combustion furnace.
