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There is increasing interest in miniaturized systems for chemical analysis in harsh environments. Detailed chemical analysis involves separation methods prior to detection. Depending upon the analytes of interest, gas chromatography (i.e. for volatile species) or liquid chromatography (i.e. for polar organics or large biomolecules) can be utilized. Over the last 5-10 years one can observe a strong drive towards portable capillary electrophoresis systems, which has led to a variety of successful devices. This is due to ease of miniaturization and robustness of capillary electrophoresis. This paper describes the requirements of analytical separation instruments intended for operation in harsh environments, e.g. at volcanoes, inside oil wells, in cold deserts of Antarctica, or even on the surfaces of other planets in our solar system. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.