Abstract

Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) is the measurement of dissolved oxygen needed by

aerobic biological organisms to break down organic material present in a water sample, at
a certain temperature, for a certain period of time, in darkness. BOD is widely used as an
indication of water quality.
In this experiment, we will record the BOD of 6 samples of wastewater, incubated at
20oC for a period of 5 days using the Hach BOD method, and one sample using the DO
test.
The results obtained in this lab did validate the common understandings and general
guidelines of the BOD tests and did meet our expectations.

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Contents
Abstract................................................................................................................................2
Introduction..........................................................................................................................4
Objective..........................................................................................................................4
Theory of experiment......................................................................................................5
Equipments& Materials.......................................................................................................6
Procedure.............................................................................................................................7
Data collected......................................................................................................................8
Calculations.........................................................................................................................9
Results................................................................................................................................10
Discussion..........................................................................................................................11
Error Analysis................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................13
References..........................................................................................................................14
Task of members................................................................................................................15

List of Tables
No table of figures entries found.

List of Figures
Figure 1: BOD test materials...............................................................................................6

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Introduction
Biochemical oxygen demand is a test which determines the amount of organic material in
wastewater by measuring the oxygen consumed by microorganisms in decomposing
organic constituents of the waste. The higher the BOD, the more oxygen will be
demanded from the waste to break down the organics. The BOD test is most commonly
used to measure waste loading at treatment plants and in evaluating the efficiency of
wastewater treatment. The BOD test is performed by incubating a sealed wastewater
sample for the standard 5-day period, then determining the change in dissolved oxygen
content.
Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) is one of the most common measures of pollutant
organic material in water. BOD indicates the amount of putrescible organic matter
present in water. Therefore, a low BOD is an indicator of good quality water, while a
high BOD indicates polluted water.

Objective

The purpose of our experiment is to determine the quality of water through calculating
the biological oxygen demand BOD in several samples of water and waste water.

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Theory of experiment

Biochemical oxygen demand is determined by incubating a sealed sample of water for

five days and measuring the loss of oxygen from the beginning to the end of the test.
Samples often must be diluted prior to incubation or the bacteria will deplete all of the
oxygen in the bottle before the test is complete.
We will first dilute the sewage solution. The sample is introduced to BOD bottles which
provide an appropriate environment for bacterial activity. After setting the temperature at
20⁰C, we will measure BOD over a period of 5 days. The difference in the initial and
final dissolved oxygen concentration in the sample are critical in BOD determination.
Other factors can contribute in BOD. High temperature increases biological activity and
hence increases BOD. Nitrates and phosphates in solution can lead to a high BOD, falsely
attributed to the amount of oxygen consumed. It is very important to incubate in darkness
to prevent the growth of algae through photosynthesis.

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 Equipments& Materials
 oxygen meter
 incubator
 aluminum foil
 black electrical tape
 seal gasket
 flasks
 Raw sewage
 Water samples
 Bottles
 Incubator
 Aluminum
 electrical tape

Figure 1: BOD test materials

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Procedure

 2 samples of water were taken.

 The DO level (ppm) of one immediately was recorded using the method
described in the dissolved oxygen test.
 The second water sample was placed in an incubator in complete darkness at
20 °C for 5 days(If you don't have an incubator, wrap the water sample bottle
in aluminum foil or black electrical tape and store in a dark place at room
temperature 20 °C).
 After 5 days, another dissolved oxygen reading (ppm) was taken using the
dissolved oxygen test kit.
 The Day 5 reading was subtracted from the Day 1 reading to determine the
BOD level.
 The final BOD result was recorded in ppm.

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Data collected

Tap Tap Water Effluent Effluent Influent Influent

Water (ATH) (ATH) (ATH)
Day 1 5 4 13 11 134 129

Day 2 8 9 17 16 159 141

Day 3 9 12 21 23 203 178
Day 4 16 14 28 25 227 206
Day 5 18 15 33 28 246 212

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Calculations
Dissolved Oxygen Test:

Since a standard volume of 300mL was used there is no need to adjust the volumes.
The calculated BOD is as follows:
[ DO ] initial− [ DO ] final
BOD=
1
BOD=175−73.2=101.8 ppm
Where ppm stands for particle per million.

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Results

Without ATH
300

250

200
Tap Water
BOD

150 Effluent
Influent
100

50

0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
Days

With ATH
300

250

200

Tap Water
BOD

150 Effluent
Influent
100

50

0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5

Days

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Discussion

The BOD test was carried out over a period of 5 days using dissolved oxygen kit. The
difference between the DO levels measured on a certain day to the initial DO level
represents the BOD, which is the amount of oxygen required of the decomposition of
organic matter.
With that being said, we have plotted the BOD levels over 5 days against time for Bottles
1, 2, 3 and 4. From the graphs, we can infer the following:
 The BOD value of a given day must be higher than the one of the previous day.
(True for the 4 graphs)
 BOD values do not increase linearly, but rather an increase smaller than that of
the previous day. Graph 1, however seems to follow a linear trend (almost
perfectly), hence it’s a defiance of the general rule; which implies that the sample
will have a higher BOD than expected.
 There was no sudden increase or decrease of BOD (no sign of nitrification or
indication of system leakage).

As for the BOD results, we compare the values calculated to the reference below:

The values obtained fall within indicating very poor/ much polluted water influent. This
makes sense since our source is influent sewage water that had no treatment at all, and we
do expect high organic content. We also notice that ATH hindered oxygen consumption
caused by nitrifying bacteria, which led to a lower BOD value in bottle 1-2
(influent+ATH) than bottles 3-4 (influent-no ATH). Those of tap water were somewhat
polluted since this was not water for drinking purposes.

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Error Analysis

Many inaccuracies in experimental results occur due to some human, mechanical, or even
natural errors. In fact, nothing is perfect due to the presence of some hidden errors if not
obvious in every calculation done. The results and values obtained may lack accuracy and
precision due to the following factors.

- Instrumental

o The pipet was spilling some minute amounts of solutions causing some errors
in the computations ATH adding.
o Taking the values from the Hach BOD which may not be accurate due to
calibration errors.

- Personal
o Limitations of the human senses of sight and touch
o Mixing of the sample to have a homogeneous mixtures
o Improper detection of sample solution homogeneity.
o Imprecision in measuring the sample solution.
o Cross contamination between samples leading to the infection of the
appropriate samples data.

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Conclusion

To conclude with, BOD directly affects the amount of dissolved oxygen in rivers and
streams. The rate of oxygen consumption is affected by a number of variables:
temperature, pH, the presence of certain kinds of microorganisms, and the type of organic
and inorganic material in the water. The greater the BOD, the more rapidly oxygen is
depleted in the stream. This means less oxygen is available to higher forms of aquatic
life. Consequently, aquatic organisms become stressed, suffocate, and die.

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References
Baroudy, K. (Fall 2015). BOD. Laboratory Experiment. Byblos, Lebanon: Lebanese

American University.

Community, L. (2015). BOD. LA California: Wiley. Retrieved from Lexbook:

lexbook.net

Jacqmin-Gadda, M. S., & Commenges, J. F. (2015). Water Characteristics. Retrieved

from BOD: ion.chem.usu.edu

Lower, S. (2014). BOD. Wiley, 24.

Senese, F. (2010). BOD. Retrieved from Antoine Frostburg:

antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101.html

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Task of members

Gaelle Abi Younes was in charge of writing the discussion, calculations, data collected
and answer to questions parts

Ahmad Abu Jmeiwas in charge of writing the list of equipments and chemicals, the
abstract and objective.

Paul Al Helouwas in charge of writing the theory of experiment and conclusion.

Mohamed Orabi : Procedure and introduction.

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