Duhok polytechnic university

Technical college of engineering

Petrochemical department

{pollution control}

Name of Experiment:
[Air pollution]
EXP NO.1

Name: - Ibrahim dewali

Group ((B))
Date of Experiment 15/4/2019
 Air Pollution Experiment

Measuring Air Pollution

Background Information:

Breathing is crucial for human existence, but is the air we breathe clean? This experiment will provide
students with an example of how “dirty” our air is. Students have the opportunity to choose a location
where they would like to examine the air quality.

Purpose:

To determine the amount of foreign air particles in a specific area.

Required Materials:

• White posterboard (paper plates could also work)

• Scissors

• Hole punch

• Magnifying glass

• String

• Vaseline

• Permanent marker

• Notebook

• Pencil

Procedure:
1. Find an area in which you can hang several cut out pieces of the poster board. You can perform this
experiment in your home, yard or another area of your choice depending on where you would like to
examine how clean the air is.

2. Cut the poster board into several 3x3 inch squares.

3. Draw a square with the marker on each cut out piece of poster board, a little smaller than the square
itself.

4. Punch a hole in the top of each piece of poster board and tie pieces of string in the holes so you can
hang the cut outs in the area of your choice.

5. Smear a thin layer of Vaseline inside the drawn square on each cut out and hang them in different
places within the area you’ve decided to examine. Record the areas you’ve hung each cut out in your
notebook.

6. Wait 6-10 days to collect your squares and examine your results. * You may need adult supervision
when working with scissors, the hole punch, as well as assistance with hanging the squares in high
places so the squares are not disturbed during your experiment.

Conclusion:
Breathing clean air is very important for our lungs and our overall health. The Vaseline that had been
used on the square cut outs was designed to collect air particles. You may have noticed that air pollutant
particles can be big or small, and colored or colorless. The air particles that you observed are made up of
dust, soot, smoke, and other chemicals that can be inhaled can block the movement of oxygen into the
lungs. Higher particle concentrations are caused from areas with large populations with increased
manufacturing and automobile emissions.

Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer

Atomic absorption spectrophotometry analyzes the concentration of elements in a liquid sample based
on energy absorbed from certain wavelengths of light (usually 190 to 900 nm). Atomic absorption
spectrophotometers typically include a flame burner to atomize the sample (most commonly a hollow
cathode lamp), a monochromator, and a photon detector. Depending on the model, some atomic
absorption spectrometers are equipped with a turret or fixed lamp socket that can hold multiple lamps
(up to eight) to reduce downtime between samples or allow for sequential analysis.

Typical sensitivity for an atomic absorption spectrometer using a flame burner is in the parts per million
range. For trace analysis, a graphite furnace can be used in place of a flame burner to increase the
sensitivity by several orders of magnitude (in the parts per billion range). Atomic absorption
spectrophotometers are used in many industries including environmental testing, metal analysis,
semiconductor manufacturing, petroleum and chemical production, and in pharmaceuticals.
Biological Oxygen Demand BOD
The biological oxygen demand (BOD) also called biochemical oxygen demand. The BOD refers to the
amount of oxygen required for the biotic degradation of organic matter in bodies of water. The
conditions and the time how this testing is done is set and standardized, by the authorities.
The BOD is a pollution parameter to asses the quality of effluent or wastewater. Drinking water is tested
as well to check, if there is any organic matter present. But lately to evaluate drinking water, the TOC –
Total Organic Carbon is meassured, instead of the BOD.

WHO DEMANDS THIS OXYGEN?

The biochemical decomposition of organic substrates is carried out by microorganism. For this work the
bacteria need energy. Aerobic bacteria, that do this work, need oxygen to produce energy. This oxygen
is consumed in this process and the dissolved oxygen level in the water is reduced. If there is a lot of
organic material present in the water, the oxygen demand is correspondingly high to carry out the
decomposition. This oxygen is then lacking the plants and animals that also live in this water.

The water quality is controlled by the authorities to protect users form health and other adverse effects
of poor water quality. A high BOD level can indicate the existence of faecal contamination. Or
particulate and dissolved organic carbon from various sources, neither from human nor from animal.
This kind of contamination can seriously affect human health and cause problems to the industry.

It is very important for every government to ensure a low BOD level in the effluent water leaving a
sewage plant. As it is in public interest to have rivers, lakes and seas with a high level of dissolved
oxygen. In order to ensure that the dissolved oxygen is not only consumed by microorganism. For this
purpose international conventions and agreements have been made such as The Resolution II and the a
detailed plan after the United Nations Water Conference.

How to measure the BOD level.

There are two methods to measure the BOD level. Both methods are empirical tests.

 Method I: This is the most common method. A specified sized BOD bottle is filled to the brim
with water. The sample is left over 5 days at a constant temperature of 20° in the dark.

 Method II: The principal is the same as above. Again a specified sized BOD bottle is filled with a
water sample and then it is diluted with de-ionized water. The amount of dissolved oxygen in
the de-ionized water is known. The bottle is also left over 5 days at a constant temperature of
20° in the dark.
Method II has to be used if the waste water contains a lot of organic pollution. By dilluting the
water sample the results are more accurate.

After the 5 day the left dissolve oxgen in the water sample is measured. With this figure the BOD level
can be calculated.
Drinking water should have after the 5 days a BOD of well below 1 mg/l. Acceptable wastewater from a
sewage plant, will have a BOD of around 20 mg/l.

As those methods are empirical the BOD indicator gives no absolute results. The indicator provides a
good comparison among samples but it gives no exact measure of the contamination in the water. An
alternative indicator to BOD is COD – Chemical Oxygen Demand.

Anaerobic bacteria, such as SRB, dont need dissolved oxygen in the water to survive. Such
microorganism are living on sulfur instead of oxygen, hence they cant be detected by the measuring the
biochemical oxygen demand.