The production of gaseous pollutants from conventional gas turbine combustors is being investigated through the use of a characteristic time model. Here, the dominant subprocesses (liquid fuel evaporation, turbulent mixing, and chemical reaction) affecting the formation and destruction of pollutant species are expressed in terms of times and then sums and ratios of these times are used to correlate emissions. Correlations are done for combustors of three engines (the General Motors GT-309, the Detroit Diesel Allison T-63, and the Pratt and Whitney JT9D); the model predicts the effect of combustor geometry, fuel type, power level, ambient conditions, etc. on the levels of pollutants produced. In addition, the model shows promise as an emissions optimization tool as demonstrated for the GT-309. And, there are indications that, for specific pollutants, universal correlations for all conventional gas turbine combustors can be performed with the model. Generally heterogeneous effects are ignored.