Total nitrogen in composts

Procedure:

Weigh 0.500 g fresh composts sample in the digestion tube. Add 10 mL salicylic / sulfuric
acid and swirl the tube until the acid is thoroughly mixed with composts. Let the mixture
stand for at least several hours (or overnight). Add 1.25 g of sodium thiosulfate through a
dry funnel with a long stem that reaches down into the bulb of the digestion tube. Heat
the mixture cautiously on the digestion stand until frothing has caesed. Cool the tube and
add 2.75 g of the catalyst mixture, heat until the digestion mixture become clear. Boil the
mixture gently for up to 5 h. (in most cases a boiling period of 2 h. is sufficient) so that the
sulfuric acid condenses about 1/3 of the way up to the neck of the tube. Make sure that
the temperature of the solution does not exceed 400℃. Allow the tube to cool down after
the digestion and add about 20 mL of water slowly while shaking. Pipette out 10 mL boric
acid into 250 mL conical flask. Place it on the micro-Kjelhahl distiller so that the outlet
glass tube is completely dipped into the boric acid solution. Set the tube containing
digested sample on the distillation apparatus. Check water tap is running (run one
dummy with only water to heat up the machine). Add two flushes (25 mL in each flush) of
40 ％ NaOH by pressing particular switch. Set the distillation time as 5 minutes. Run
distillation. After distillation is over, take out the conical flask. Add a few drops of indicator
to the distillate and titrate with sulfuric acid to a violet endpoint or use a potentiometric
titration with endpoint pH＝5.

Note:

 Carry out a blank test in which the same procedure is performed without composts.
 A potentiometric titration is also possible (endpoint of titration should be pH ＝5).
 If steam distillation is used, a distillation rate up to about 25 mL/min is applicable.
Stop the distillation when about 100 mL of distillate have been collected.

Calculation

The total nitrogen content is calculated by use of the following formula:

WN＝［ (V1-)*c(H+)*MN*(100+WH2O) ］/(m*100)

Where,

WN＝ the total nitrogen content (mg/g ＝ g/kg)

V1 ＝ volume of the sulfuric acid used in the titration of the sample (mL)
V0 ＝ volume of the sulfuric acid in the titration of the blank sample (mL)
c(H+) ＝ concentration of H+ in the sulfuric acid (moles/litre)
MN ＝ the molar mass of nitrogen (＝14 g/mol)
m ＝ mass of the fresh compost sample (g)
WH2O ＝ water content of the compost, based on oven-dried compost (％ by mass)