A reduction strategy of hydrogen sulfide/oxygen reaction mechanism is conducted to simplify the detailed mechanism. Direct relation graph and error propagation methodology (DRGEP) has been used. A novel approach of direct elementary reaction error (DERE) has been developed in this study. The developed approach allowed for further reduction of the reaction mechanism. The reduced mechanism has been compared with the detailed mechanism under different conditions to emphasize its validity. The results obtained from the resulting reduced mechanism showed good agreement with that from the detailed mechanism. However, some discrepancies have been found for some species. Hydrogen and oxygen mole fractions showed the largest discrepancy of all combustion products. The reduced mechanism was also found to be capable of tracking the changes that occur in chemical kinetics through the change in reaction conditions. A comparison on the ignition delay time obtained from the reduced mechanism and previous experimental data showed good agreement. The reduced mechanism was used to track changes in mechanistic pathways of Claus reactions with the reaction progress. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.