Organic Strength of Wastewater

As a point of clarification it should be noted that all municipal wastewater

treatment plants use five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 5) as a measure
of the organic concentration into, and through, the wastewater plant. The
BOD5 test measures the oxygen taken up by wastewater during the biological
oxidation of the soluble organic matter in the wastewater. But the BOD 5 test is a
highly unreliable means of determining the amount of organic matter present in
water. The test measures only the approximate amount of oxygen that will be
required (absorbed or consumed) by a wastewater when it is exposed to air or
oxygen for an extended period of time. Toxic substances in the wastewater inhibit
or even prevent bacterial growth and, therefore, oxidation of the organic matter.
When this happens, the test result is lower than the actual amount of organic
matter present would suggest.
The BOD5 test is limited in some applications such as industrial wastewaters,
which often contain heavy metal ions, cyanides, and other substances toxic to
microorganisms. When microorganisms become poisoned by toxic substances,
they are unable to oxidize waste, in which case the BOD 5 test becomes an
ineffective measure of organic pollution.
Most industrial wastewater treatment plants use chemical oxygen demand (COD)
or total organic carbon (TOC) rather than the BOD 5 test. Due to the length of time
required to complete the BOD5 test (five days), BOD results provide historical
data only and do not facilitate rapid water quality assessment for optimal process
control. The highly variable chemical composition and strength of industrial
wastewater requires a much more rapid method for measuring the organic
concentration, hence the use of the two hour COD test or the 30 minute TOC
analysis. Municipal wastewater plants operate with much greater consistency (less
variation) in the strength of the influent organic loading which allows the
municipality to wait five days to determine the organic concentration entering the
plant.

The TOC test can take several minutes to several hours to complete, and
information obtained from a TOC analysis is less useful than information obtained
from the BOD5 or the COD analysis. The TOC test does not differentiate between
compounds with the same number of carbon atoms in different stages of oxidation
and will thus produce different oxygen demand results. Because BOD5 and COD
tests directly measure the amount of oxygen required to stabilize a waste sample,
results reflect the original oxidation state of the chemical pollutants. The
relationship between BOD5, COD, and TOC is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: BOD, COD, and TOC Relationship

Top of Page
COD test results can also be used to estimate the BOD 5 results for a given sample.
An empirical relationship exists between BOD5, COD, and TOC. However, the
specific relationship must be established for each sample location in a plant.
That is, the relationship between the BOD5, COD, and TOC from a given sample
location is site-specific. Once the correlation has been established, the COD test is
useful for monitoring and process control. Without BOD 5 data correlated to COD
data, the ratios in Table 1 can be used to estimate (roughly approximate, really)
the relationship between COD, BOD5, and/or TOC. Use the table with caution
though. These ratio values are only a guide and may vary significantly from what

is actually taking place at your wastewater plant. To see examples of how well
these ratios correlate with specific sample data, click here.
Table 1: Ratio of BOD to COD to TOC
Top

of

Page

http://waterfacts.net/Treatment/Activated_Sludge/BOD-COD-

TOC/bod-cod-toc.html

The ratio comparisons shown in Table 2 are particularly insightful. Starting with a
theoretical total oxygen demand, determined stoichiometrically, of 850 mg/L, we
can see that the 5-day BOD test only estimates 32.9% of the total oxygen demand,
far from (much lower than) the potential oxygen demand actually occurring in the
bioreactor. The COD, measured using the potassium dichromate method, does a
much better job of estimating the oxygen demand, at 600 mg/L or 70.6% of the
theoretical total oxygen demand, but the COD test still does not capture the total
oxygen demand in the bioreactor. Keep in mind, the most accurate method for
determining the true or actual oxygen demand in the bioreactor at any point in
time, is through the use of oxygen uptake rate testing, a simple 15-minute test.
Table 2: Ratio Comparison of BOD to COD to TOC