Incineration causes the destruction of all organic substances in a sample by heating it under the influence of oxygen. This is done to determine the content and / or the composition of inorganic (mineral) fraction in the sample. For this, the substance is heated in a crucible until the organic compounds are burned and only ash remains. The weight loss, the so-called ignition loss, corresponds to the organic portion of the substance, the remaining ash is the inorganic fraction. The inorganic residue can be investigated furthermore with other analytical methods (e.g. EDS) with respect to its composition.
