DETERMINATION OF WATER IN FERMENTED FEEDS BY GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY

Abstract

A gas chromatographic procedure for measuring water in fermented feeds was developed and evaluated. The method involves extracting the water with alcohol followed by the separation of the water and alcohol with a Porapak QS column in a gas chromatograph equipped with a thermal conductivity detector. Linear responses were obtained when the ratios of the peak area of water to alcohol were plotted against the weight ratios of water to alcohol (mg/g). The method has the advantage of being very fast, and is as accurate as a chemical method used for water determination.