Pollution-Reduced Kjeldahl Method for Crude Protein

Pollution from the Kjeldahl method for crude protein has been reduced by substituting a low level of copper (0.04 g CuSO4) for the mercury (0.7 g HgO) specified in the AOAC official method, 2.049. Adjustments were made in the salt-acid ratio so the new system could handle hard-to-digest samples in a reasonable time. The new method was rugged for lysine. HCl. It is designed to be used for crude protein in feeds or similar Kjeldahl work. Precision and accuracy were equal to or better than that for the official method in a study of 17 samples analyzed in duplicate on 3 different days. The following samples were used in the study: lysine. HCl, tryptophan, NBS standards, urea, meals, mixed feeds, grains, and forage. The average per cent nitrogen found was 9.52 by the official method and 9.53 by the copper method. The average standard deviation was 0.038 by the official method and 0.033 by the copper method, giving the corresponding relative standard deviations of 0.40 and 0.35%.