AIM

To measure the strength of water sample (water and wastewater) based on the amount
of oxygen needed to stabilize the organic matter in the sample.

PROCEDURES

Determine the waste water sample source.

Firstly, the sample of wastewater was taken from the drain inside the campus of UTHM
Edu Hub Pagoh using the bottle. Next, 200 mL of the sample was placed into 300 mL BOD
bottle.

Addition on nitrification inhibitor.

After that, 0.16 g of nitrification inhibitor was weighed and added into the samples.
Nitrification inhibitor also known as BOD inhibitor purposely to eliminate the nitrogen and
carbon dioxide inside the sample. Next, 100 ml of dilution water was refilled back into the
sample and stirred them very slowly.

Record the initial and final DO level (ppm) of the sample.

The sample was then recorded the initial DO level (ppm) using the DO meter, and was
place in an incubator at temperature of 20'C in about 5 days. On day 5, the final DO reading
(ppm) was checked and recorded.

Calculate the BOD5 of your wastewater samples.

Lastly, the BODs level was determined using equation below:

BOD5 = Initial Reading – Final Reading

P
= DO initial – DO final
P
Where;
BOD5 = BOD value in 5 days
P = ratio of sample’s volume with bottle’s volume
= sample(ml)
 volume of sample’s bottle (ml)
CONCLUSION

The determination of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) is used in studies to measure the
self-purification capacity of streams as a means of checking on the quality of effluents discharged to
stream waters. The dissolved oxygen (DO) value for all samples were reduced after five days due to
the microorganism have uptake the oxygen in the samples. Hence, the DO recorded after 5 days
incubation shows a decreasing results.

Microorganisms such as bacteria are responsible for decomposing organic waste. When
organic matter such as dead plants, leaves, grass clippings, manure, sewage, or even food waste is
present in a water supply, the bacteria will begin the process of breaking down this waste. When this
happens, much of the available dissolved oxygen is consumed by aerobic bacteria, robbing other
aquatic organisms of the oxygen they need to live.

Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) is a measure of the oxygen used by microorganisms to

decompose this waste. BOD is a chemical procedure for determining the rate of uptake of dissolved
oxygen by the rate biological organisms in a body of water use up oxygen. It is not a precise
quantitative test, although it is widely used as an indication of the quality of water.

If there is a large quantity of organic waste in the water supply, there will also be a lot of
bacteria present working to decompose this waste. In this case, the demand for oxygen will be high
(due to all the bacteria) so the BOD level will be high.

Therefore, the lower the BOD5 value, the polluted the sampl.e The dissolve oxygen and
biochemical oxygen demand of a wastewater sample were determined. Hence, the objective of the
experiment was achieved.