With today's increasing focus on environmental quality a continual reduction in air pollution is imperative. Accompanying this need is the ability to monitor improvements made in the air quality near stationary sources. Specifically the analysis of sulfur-containing pollutants is becoming mandatory in operations such as kraft paper mills, fossil burning power generation and the petrochemical refining industry. Gas chromatography is a versatile tool for accomplishing this analysis in the normal ppb to ppm concentration range. Typically an all-Teflon flow system is employed with detection by flame photometry. Results will be presented showing individual component as well as total system optimization. This will include consideration of column technology, detector gas flow rates and electrical operating parameters. The best column fabrication means will be discussed with methods for achieving optimum column and detector operation. For the low level analysis of sulfur pollutants the importance of design attention to the entire system will be stressed. The practical application of all these considerations will be demonstrated with monitoring data obtained on industrial stationary sources in the San Francisco Bay Area. An analyzer embodying the desired characteristics can be mated with an automated sequence programmer to provide continuous analysis and intermittent calibration completely unattended.