Effectiveness of Prepared Corn Husk Activated Carbon on the Abatement of Sodium Chloride Content in Fish Sauce

Abstract

Fish sauce is a salt-fermented product that is an economically important fishery product in most Southeast Asian countries. In this study, high sodium chloride content of fish sauce was reduced by environmental friendly adsorbent from agricultural waste (corn husk). The production of activated carbon from agricultural by-product has potential economic and reducing environmental impacts. Corn husk activated carbon was prepared by chemical activation method using zinc chloride (ZnCl2) as activating agent. The effect of various preparation parameters such as concentration of activating agent, carbonization temperature and carbonization time that depend on characteristics of activated carbon. Based on the results of the characterization studies, the activated carbon prepared by impregnation the precursor with 20% ZnCl2, followed by carbonization at 250°C for 40 min., was selected as the appropriate condition due to the following good characteristics of activated carbon: high surface area, high iodine sorption capacity, and SEM analysis. In reduction of sodium chloride content in fish sauce, the ratio of 1:50 activated carbon to fish sauce for 120 min. agitation time at 30°C was effectively reduced from 31.5 to 26.34 (%w/w). The effective reduction of sodium chloride from commercial fish sauce was significantly observed by processed