Water & Waste Water Treatment

Water & Environmental Engineering Department

Dr. Muna Al-Banna
Lab Report 4

Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)

2nd Semester 2010 Sunday, May 23, 2010

Ahmad Noufal 2007201005

Introduction
Chemical oxygen demand (COD) test is commonly used to measure the amount of Oxygen consumer matter in water. Most applications of COD determine the amount of organic pollutants found in surface water making COD a useful measure of water quality. It is expressed (mg/L) or (ppm), which indicates the mass of oxygen consumed per liter of solution. COD is a measure of the capacity of water to consume oxygen during the decomposition of organic matter and the oxidation of inorganic chemicals such as ammonia and nitrite. COD measurements are commonly made on samples of waste waters or of natural waters contaminated by domestic or industrial wastes. It is measured as a standardized laboratory assay in which a closed water sample is incubated with a strong chemical oxidant under specific conditions of temperature and for a particular period of time. A commonly used oxidant in COD assays is potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) which is used in combination with boiling sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Because this chemical oxidant is not specific to oxygen-consuming chemicals that are organic or inorganic, both of these sources of oxygen demand are measured in a COD assay. COD is an indicator the quality of effluents and waste waters prior to discharge. It predicts the oxygen requirement of the effluent and used for monitoring and controlling discharges. The impact of an effluent or waste water discharge on the receiving water is predicted by its oxygen demand. This is because the removal of oxygen from the natural water reduces its ability to sustain aquatic life. COD is related to biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). BOD only measures the amount of oxygen consumed by microbial oxidation and is relevant to waters rich in organic matter. It is important to

understand that COD and BOD do not measure the same types of oxygen consumption. For example, COD does not measure the oxygenconsuming potential associated with certain dissolved organic compounds such as acetate. However, acetate can be metabolized by microorganisms and would be detected in an assay of BOD. In contrast, the oxygen-consuming potential of cellulose is not measured during a short-term BOD assay, but it is measured during a COD test.

Tools needed:
For this test we need: - Beakers - Cylinders - Titration flask and test tubes - Burette - Pipettes - Dropper - Hot plate

Reagents
1. Potassium dichromate (Standard solution): K2Cr2O7 0.004167 M (0.0250 N) 2. Ferrous ammonium sulfate (Standard solution): FeSO4. (NH4)2SO4 (0.025 M)

3. Mercuric Sulfate: Powdered HgSO4 4. Silver Sulfate: Powdered Ag2SO4 5. FAS indicator 6. Concentrated Sulfuric acid: H2SO4 18 M

Procedure:

Provide a 10ml of the water sample(for our experiment, we used tap water)

Adding 0.2 g of HgSO4 first. Then adding 10ml of a solution of H2SO4 and Ag2SO4. Adding 5 ml of the oxidizing agent (K2Cr2O7), Adding finally 5 ml of a solution of H2SO4 and Ag2SO4 again. The last solution is added on two steps to prevent the test tube from damage.

At the end, the samples volume would be around 30 ml, in general for this test; the ratio of the water sample to the whole chemical solution should be (1:2)

The sample should then be heated for 2 hours at the temperature of 150 C.

The resultant solution should be poured into a flask. 0.1ml FAS indicator solution which has a normality value of 0.1, should be added.

Finally, a titration of the remnants of the strong oxidizing agent (Cr

3+

) should be performed. The color of the solution before

titration should be orange, and after the titration it should turn into reddish-brown color. Blank In order to make use of the results, a blank sample should be made as an indicator, in which all the chemicals are added except for the water sample. The volume of the titrant used for the blank sample would be given the amount of A, and the volume of titrant used for our water sample would be the amount B; thus the amount of the oxidizing agent consumed by the pollutants in the sample would be: A B. The COD is calculated by: {[(A-B) * N * 8ooo] / Volume of the water sample} * Dilution factor. * N is the normality of the FAS solution.

Results
The following volumes of titrant were obtained for the blank and water sample: Blank sample: Water sample: factor of 1:5 22ml of titrant were used 18ml of titrant were used with the dilution

Calculations
The amount of COD present in water sample:

COD = [(A-B) * N * 8ooo] / Volume of the water sample. COD = {[(22 18) * 0.1 * 8000] / 10} * (1/5) COD =64 mg/L

Conclusion
As tap water has been used in this experiment, it is reasonable to find out that the COD of the sample is 64 mg/L. There is another method to determine COD value for a water sample beside this one and the COD measuring device, which is the difference between two DO readings determined in Winkler titration method.