Lafayette College

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

CE 321: Introduction to Environmental Engineering Fall 2010

Homework #9
SOLUTIONS - Due: Monday, 11/29/10 - SOLUTIONS

1) By volume the concentration of oxygen in air is about 21 %. Find the equilibrium

concentration of O2 in water (mole/L and mg/L) at 25oC and 1 atm of pressure. Recalculate
it for Denver at an altitude of 1525m. (P = Po – 1.15*(10-4)*H; P = atmospheric pressure at
altitude H (atm), H = altitude (m), Po = atmospheric pressure at sea level (atm)).

2) Suppose the gas above the soda in a bottle of soft drink is pure CO2 at a pressure of 2 atm.
Calculate [CO2] at 15oC. Also report your answer as mg/L.

3) It has been estimated that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere before the Industrial
Revolution was about 275 ppm (0.000275 atm = 275 x 10-6 atm). If the accumulation of CO2
in the atmosphere continues, the by the middle of the next century it will probably be around
600 ppm (0.0006 atm = 600 x 10-6 atm). Calculate the pH of rainwater (neglecting the effect
of any other gases such as H2S and NO2) at 25oC in each of these times.

4) If the BOD of a municipal wastewater at the end of 7 days is 60 mg/L and the ultimate BOD
is 85.0 mg/L, what is the rate constant?

5) Assuming that the data in Problem 4 were taken at 25oC, computer the rate constant at 16oC.

6) A sample of municipal sewage is diluted to 1% by volume prior to running a BOD5 analysis.

After 5 days the oxygen consumption is determined to be 2.00 mg/L. What is the BOD5 of
the sewage?

7) If the BOD5 values for two livestock wastes having k values of 0.3800 day-1 and 0.240 day-1
are16230.0 mg/L, what would be the ultimate BOD for each?

8) Some wastewater has a five-day BOD ate 20oC equal to 210 mg/L and an ultimate BOD of
350 mg/L. Find the five-day BOD at 25oC.

9) In a standard five-day BOD test,

a. Why is the BOD bottle stoppered?
b. Why is the test run in the dark (or in a black bottle)?

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 c. Why is it usually necessary to dilute the sample?
d. Why is it sometimes necessary to seed the sample?
e. Why isn’t ultimate BOD measured?
f. What concentration of DO would you suggest as a starting concentration.

10) Assuming 0.1 mM of glutamic acid (C5H9O4N) is used in the following stoichiometric
reactions, calculate the NBOD of glutamic acid.
C5H9O4N + 4.5O2  5CO2 + 3H2O + NH3
NH3 + 2O2  NO3- + H+ + H2O

11) If the dissolved oxygen concentration measured during a BOD test is 9 mg/L initially, 6
mg/L after 5 days, and 3 mg/L after an indefinitely long period of time, calculate the 10-day
BOD.

12) The following figure shows a plot of BOD remaining versus time for a sample of the effluent
taken from a wastewater treatment plant.
a. What is the ultimate BOD (Lo)?
b. What is the five-day BOD?
c. What is Lt for 7 days?

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13) If the BOD5 for some wastewater if 200 mg/L and the ultimate BOD is 300 mg/L, find the
reaction rate constant k (base e) and K (base 10).

14) Suppose some wastewater had a BOD5 equal to a 180 mg/L and a reaction rate k equal to
0.22/day. It also has total Kjedahl nitrogen content (TKN) of 30 mg/L.
a. Find the ultimate carbonaceous oxygen demand (CBOD).
b. Find the ultimate nitrogenous oxygen demand (NBOD).
c. Find the remaining BOD (nitrogenous plus carbonaceous) after five days have
elapsed.

15) Glutamic acid (C5H9O4N) is used as one of the regent for a standard to check the BOD test.
Determine the theoretical oxygen demand of 150 mg/L of glutamic acid. Assuming the
following reactions:
C5H9O4N + 4.5O2  5CO2 + 3H2O + NH3
NH3 + 2O2  NO3- + H+ + H2O

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15) Glutamic acid (C5H9O4N) is used as one of the regent for a standard to check the BOD test.
Determine the theoretical oxygen demand of 150 mg/L of glutamic acid. Assuming the
following reactions:
C5H9O4N + 4.5O2  5CO2 + 3H2O + NH3
NH3 + 2O2  NO3- + H+ + H2O

Given: 150 mg · L-1 of glutamic acid and oxidation reactions

Solution:

a. Compute the gram molecular weights of glutamic acid and oxygen consumed
MW of C5H9O4N = 147
MW of oxygen (4.5 O2 + 2 O2) = 208
b. Calculate the ThOD

TOD -(150mg/L) (208/147)= 212mg/L