CEN-202: Wastewater Engineering (Spring, 2024)

Practice Problem Set-3

1. An evaporating dish containing a waste water sample of volume 150 mL was heated at 105⁰C for 8
hrs and weighed 30.1134 g when all the water got evaporated. The same dish weighed 30.1102 g when
it was further subjected to heating in a muffle furnace at 550 ⁰C for an hour. The initial dry mass of
the evaporating dish was 30.1068g. Find out the total solids and total volatile solids in the wastewater
sample in mg/L.
2. The following test results were obtained for a wastewater sample taken at an industrial site.
Determine total solids, total suspended solids, total volatile solids, and dissolved solids content of the
wastewater if the sample size for each of the following tests were 100 mL:
Initial mass of the evaporating dish: 52.1233 g
Mass of the dish after evaporation at 105 deg C: 52.1590 g
Mass of the dish after ignition at 550 deg C: 52.1563 g
Initial mass of the glass fibre filter: 1.2027 g
Mass of the used glass fibre filter after evaporation at 105 deg C: 1.2155 g
Corrected Mass of the used glass fibre filter after ignition at 550 deg C: 1.2123 g
Please note that if certain precautions are taken, the glass fibre filter does not undergo change during
the process of ignition, although a slight loss in weight may be observed. In order to take care of such
minor change, a blank filter is processed in the same way as the one used for filtration and the weight
of the blank filter after ignition is used when performing calculations.
3. A laboratory result datasheet contained the following information:

Initial mass of the evaporating dish: 37.003 g

Mass of the evaporating dish after evaporation at 105 deg C: 37.039 g
Mass of the evaporating dish after ignition at 550 deg C: 37.019g
Initial mass of a glass fibre filter: 1.3113 g
Mass of used filter after evaporation at 105 deg C: 1.3238 g
You have been asked to find out the total volatile solid concentration of the wastewater. A) Are you
missing any data required for your calculation? B) In such a case, use the information that the
suspended solids for the wastewater are 175 mg/L. Note that the same volume was used for all the
analysis.
4. A laboratory provides the following analysis obtained from a 50 mL sample of wastewater: total
solids = 200 mg/L, total suspended solids = 160 mg/ L, fixed suspended solids = 40 mg/L, and volatile
suspended solids = 120 mg/ L.
(i) What is the conc. of total dissolved solids of this sample?
(ii) Suppose this sample was filtered through a glass-fibre filter, and the filter was then placed in a
muffle furnace at 550 deg C overnight. What would be the weight of the solids (in mg) remaining on
the filter after the night in the furnace?
(iii) Estimate the percent of the solids that are organic matter.
5. In a BOD determination, 12 mL of wastewater is mixed with 288 mL of diluting water containing 8.4
mg/L of dissolved oxygen. After 5 day incubation at 20 deg C, the dissolved oxygen content of the
mixture is 5.6 mg/L. Assuming that the wastewater does not contain any oxygen at all, what is the
BOD of the wastewater?
6. An experiment is conducted in a batch reactor to measure the BOD in a wastewater sample.
Dissolved oxygen content (DO) was measured over time. The measurement data are presented below.

Time 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 15 ∞
(days)
DO 9.2 8.6 7.4 6.8 6.2 5.6 5.2 4.9 4.8 4.5 4.4 4.0 3.9
(mg/L)
a) What is the ultimate BOD of the sample?
b) What is the BOD5 of the sample?
c) What is the reaction rate constant for the BOD degradation (k)?
7. If the DO concentration measured during a BOD test is 9 mg/L initially, calculate the 10 day BOD
given the DO concentration was 6 mg/L after 7 days and 3.2 mg/L after an indefinitely long period of
time.
8. BOD measurement of a waste water sample collected from a sewer outside Rajendra Bhawan of IIT
Roorkee was carried out and BOD5 was found to be 265 390 mg/L. The initial DO of the unseeded
dilution water was 9 mg/L. The DO content of the sample bottle measured after 5 days incubation at
20 deg C was equal to 2.42 mg/L. If 5 mL of the waste water was used and the BOD bottles had a
volume of 300 mL, find the following:
a) The dilution ratio.
b) Initial DO concentration of the wastewater.
9. The BOD5 of waste sample was found to be 46 mg/L. The initial oxygen concentration of the dilution
water was 9 mg/L. The DO content of the wastewater sample bottle measured after 5 days incubation
period was equal to 2.81 mg/L, and the size of the sample was equal to 40 mL. If the volume of the
BOD bottle used was 300 mL, estimate the initial DO concentration of the collected wastewater.
10. BOD tests were carried out using wastewater samples at two different temperatures, 15 deg C and
20 deg C and the following results were observed:
Time, days Dissolved Oxygen
15 deg C 20 deg C
0 10 9
5 5.4 3.5
100 4.0 3.0

Determine the first order reaction rate constant (kd) for the same wastewater at 10 deg C. Consider
ϴ = 1.047 [Hint: in 100 days practically all biodegradable organics are supposed to get degraded].
11. 15mL of the waste sample has been added into a 300 mL BOD incubation bottle. The initial DO of
the diluted sample was 7.8 mg/L and the final DO after 5 days was 1.7 mg/L. The corresponding initial
and final DO of seeded dilution water was 8.1 and 6.9, respectively. What is the 5 day BOD of the
wastewater sample? [IAS 2011]
12. Determine the theoretical BOD5/COD, BOD5/TOC and TOC/COD ratios for the compound C5H7NO2.
Assume the value of the BOD first-order reaction rate constant is 0.23/d (base e). If a wastewater
sample contains the above organic compound can you comment on its biological treatability? (Hint: If
the BOD5/COD ratio for untreated wastewater is≥ 0.5, the waste is considered to be easily treated by
biological means.)
13. A wastewater sample was diluted 10 % with tap water for conducting BOD test. The DO content in
wastewater sample was 1.2 mg/L and water was 6 mg/L. After 5 days of incubation at 20 deg C, the
DO of the mixture was 2.5 mg/L. Calculate 5 day BOD of wastewater and ultimate BOD, Assume K 20
=0.12/day. [IES 2017]
14. You are running a 5 day BOD test in the laboratory at standard conditions. You diluted 5 mL sample
into 300 mL in a BOD bottle using standard dilution water without seed. After 5 days you came back
to the laboratory to find out the final DO concentration, so that you can calculate the BOD5 at 20 deg
C for your sample. However, you found that the incubator is showing a temperature of 27 deg C. On
inquiry, you found out that another PhD student who wanted to run a 3-day BOD test on some other
sample, has turned up the temperature on the beginning of day 3 of your test to 25 27 deg C. You
found a DO concentration of 3.8 mg/L in the wastewater sample. Find out BOD 5 of your sample. The
standard values are: k=0.3 day-1 and θ=1.047, Initial DO concentration was 10 mg/L [MTE, 2015]
15. Organic contaminants may be represented by generic molecular formula CmHnOpNr where m, n, p
represent integers. Oxidation of an organic may be carried out in two steps; carbonaceous oxidation
followed by nitrogenous oxidation.
Carbonaceous Oxidation:
CmHnOpNr + aO2 bCO2 + cH2O + dNH3
Nitrogenous Oxidation:
NH3 + 2O2 NO-3 + H2O + H+
(a) Determine the value of the stoichiometric coefficients a, b, c and d in terms of m, n, p and r.
(b) Write an expression for the theoretical oxygen demand (ThOD) per gram of organic due to
carbonaceous oxidation alone. (in unit: gram O2 per gram of organic)
(c) Write an expression for Total ThOD (carbonaceous + nitrogenous) per gram of organic
(d) Use your new expressions to find out the ThOD associated with each stage of oxidation of 150 mg/L
glycine solution. Glycine has a formula CH2NH2COOH.
16. A synthetic waste water sample prepared in the environmental engineering lab of civil engineering
department is known to contain C2H5O2N, C6H12O6 and C18H36O2. The Organic-N, Organic-C (TOC)
and COD of the sample were found to be 9 mg/L, 123 mg/L and 625 mg/L, respectively. Determine the
concentration of each of the constituents in mg/L.
17. Bacterial cells have been represented by the chemical formula C5H7NO2. Compute the carbonaceous
ThOD, the nitrogenous ThOD, and the total ThOD of 30 mg/L of bacterical cells.
18. A single coliform test was performed using ten-10 mL portions. If six out of ten tubes are positive,
what is the MPN per 100 mL?
19. A single coliform test was performed using five-10 mL portions. If 3 out of five tubes are negative,
what is the MPN per 100 mL?
20. An effluent sample from the institute dairy at IIT-Roorkee has been analyzed for bacterial content
using the multiple tube fermentation test. Find out the coliform density in MPN/100 mL using Thomas
equation. Also determine the coliform density in MPN/100 mL for the sample using the Poisson
equation.
Size of portion (mL) Number of Positive Number of Negative
1.0 4 1
0.1 3 2
0.01 2 3
0.001 0 5
21. A sewage treatment plant discharges into a small stream. The characteristics of the sewage
and the stream are given below.
Stream Waste
3
Flow = 0.4 m /s Flow = 10000 m3/d
BOD = 2.0 mg/L BOD = 150.0 mg/L
DO = 90% saturation DO = 0 mg/L
Temperature = 24° C Temperature = 21° C

Average depth of the stream is 2 m and its velocity after the addition of the sewage is 0.2 m/s. Take
value of the bed activity coefficient as 0.35. BOD rate constant for the sewage is 0.2/day (base e).
Take the saturation concentration of oxygen to be equal to 8.7 mg/L.
(a) If no treatment at all is given to the sewage, what will be the lowest oxygen level in the stream
as a result of the discharge?
(b) If the stream is a fishery and the stream standards require a minimum DO of 5.0 mg/L, what
could be the maximum permissible BOD5 (20° C) of the sewage? What percentage of BOD
reduction would be required if sewage is to be treated?
22. Wastewater containing BODu= 50 mg/L is discharged at a rate of 1.5 m3/s into a river that flows
at a rate of 8 m3/s. Upstream of the discharge, the river is saturated with DO 10.8 mg/L. k=0.25/day
and temperature is 12 deg C. The re-aeration rate constant is 0.3/day. Assume there is no
background BOD concentration in the upstream of the discharge. k= 0.25/day; θ=1.047; a) How
much time is required following the discharge for half of the BOD content of the wastewater-river
mix to be consumed? b) Determine the critical oxygen deficit in the river downstream of the
discharge (mg/L).
23. A small city of population 10,000 discharges its untreated sewage into a shallow lake. A river
flows through the lake such that the water volume in the lake remains constant. The lake may be
considered to be well-mixed. Determine the DO content of the lake under steady state
concentration. Lake: V= 2X107m3; Depth d=10 m; Temperature T=20 deg C; River: Qr= 0.6 m3/s;
DOr=9.0 mg/L kgl=4 X10-5 cm/s; DOsat=9.1 mg/L Wastewater: Qw= 0.075 m3/s; BODuw= 120 mg/L;
k=0.2/day; DOw= 8 mg/L.
24. A town on the bank of river Ganga discharges 18000 cum/day of treated wastewater into
the river. The treated wastewater has BOD5 of 20 mg/L and BOD decay constant of 0.43/day
at 20 deg C. The DO of the river is 6 mg/L and the DO of the wastewater is 0.4 mg/L. a)
Compute the DO and initial Ultimate BOD in the river, immediately after mixing. B) The
saturation DO is 10 mg/L. The re-aeration constant is 0.6/day. What will be the critical DO
concentration in the river? [IES 2015]
25. The town of Nainital has of population 40,000 and it used to discharge untreated sewage into
the famous Nainital Lake of volume 2.5X107 m3. The lake has an average depth of 10m. In summer,
the temperature is 20 deg C. A river stream with no organic contaminant flows into the lake with
flow rate 0.7 m3/s with a dissolved oxygen concentration of 9.1 mg/L. Another stream flows out of
it such that the total water volume remains constant. Strong winds keep the content of the lake well-
mixed. The flow rate of untreated sewage is 0.08 m3/s. The untreated sewage had a BODu of 130
mg/L and had DO concentration of 8 mg/L. Oxygen transfer into the lake water takes place through
the surface following the two-film model which is represented by J= Kgl(Cs-C), where Cs =
saturation oxygen concentration = 9.4 mg/L and Kgl = mass transfer coefficient = 4X10-5 cm/s.
Dissolved organics degrade following 1st order reaction kinetics with rate constant k=0.2/day.
Considering that the lake acts as a CMFR, find out the dissolved organic concentration in the lake
at steady-state. [ETE 2016]
26. Even after construction of sewage treatment plant, unauthorized drains and nallahs continue to carry
untreated sewage into a river. In your locality, such an open drain carries a steady flow 0.7 m3/sec
through a culvert with a cross-sectional area 50 m2 and a length Ls = 500 m. Before the drain enters the
culvert, the BODu in the drain is 80 mg/L and the dissolved oxygen is at its saturation value of 10 mg/L.
Culvert is a closed structure through which
oxygen in the air cannot come in contact with
the wastewater flowing inside. The river has a
steady flow of 5 m3/s and a cross-sectional area
500 m2. The culvert meets the river at a point
“A” located at a distance of 5 km downstream
from a dam. The river flow leaving the dam has
zero organics and dissolved oxygen
concentration of 5 mg/L. The rate of
deoxygenation of BOD is 0.25/day (same as
BOD rate constant) and the rate of re-aeration
in the river is 0.5/day.
i)What will be the minimum DO concentration in the river downstream of the discharge point “A”?
ii) Critical distance is the distance from the outfall where the minimum DO concentration occurs. What
is the critical distance from the discharge point A in this case? [ETE 2018]