A new flame-containing cavity for molecular emission cavity analysis (MECA) was designed. The reliability of the proposed design was evaluated using SO 2 as a representative sulfur-containing compound. The blue emission of excited S 2 was monitored by a photomultiplier tube (PMT) or a photodiode (PD). Nitrogen gas and water cooling system were eliminated and flow rates of hydrogen and air were reduced drastically with respect to previous reports. It was shown that as little as 18 and 24ng of sulfur as SO 2 can be detected by PMT and PD, respectively. The relative standard deviation of the method for 200 and 500ng sulfur was 1.5 and 1%, respectively, for PMT detection and 2.3 and 1.2% for 2 and 3μg sulfur with photodiode detection. It was shown that the method could be applied to the determination of SO 2 in gaseous samples. The sulfur contents of real samples were also determined.