WASTEWATER CHARACTERISTICS

Sewage is a dilute mixture of the various types of wastes from residential; public and industrial
places. Sewage contains 99.9% of water and small portion of solids present in the sewage pose
threat as they are offensive in nature, undergo changes by bio-degradation causes nuisance and
pollution. The extent and type of treatment required depends on the characteristics and quality of
sewage and source of disposal.

In the oldentimes,thewaste waters from a community were not so much contaminated as theyare
today.The urbanization,industrial growth,andthe provedstandardsofliving,havehowever, increased
the strengthand quantity of municipal sewage in recent years to a point where dilution alone no
longerbe relied upon to prevent the undesirable effects of pollution. In any cases, more advanced
treatment of wastewater is essential to prevent undue pollution. This is much more so, when the
disposed sewageis likely to contain industrial wastewaters. Hence, it is absolutely necessary to
study the characteristicsand behavior sewage, to ensureits safe disposal.

Before we study the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of sewage let us discuss as
to how the sewage gets decayed, andwhathappens to it with the passage of time.

Decay orDecompositionof Sewage

Most of the organicmatterpresentinsewageis unstableanddecomposes readily through chemical as

well as biological actions. The organic matter decomposed by bacteria under biological action is
called biodegradable organic matter. Most of the organic matter present in sewage is
biodegradable, and hence undergoes biological decomposition, which are of two types:
a. Aerobic decomposition, called aerobic oxidation.
b. Anaerobic decomposition, called putrefaction.

Aerobic Decomposition:If air or oxygen is available freely to the wastewater in dissolved form,
then the biodegradable organic matter will undergo aerobic decomposition caused by aerobic
bacteria and facultative bacteria (operating aerobically). Stable end products are formed at the end
of oxidation process like nitrates, carbon dioxide, sulphates from the three forms of matter namely,
nitrogenous, carbonaceous and sulphurous matter. Water, heat and additional bacteria will also be
produced in this biological oxidation, which can be represented by the following equations:

The intermediate products formed in the aerobic oxidation of three types of organic matter are
shown in their respective cycles. These cycles are known as nitrogen cycle, carbon cycle and
sulphur cycle for nitrogenous, carbonaceous and sulphurous organic matter.

Nitrogen Cycle
Nitrogenous organicmattergetoxidised toammonia, thento nitrites, and finally to nitrates, which
whenconsumed by plants, through photosynthesis, form plant proteins (plant life). The plant
proteins, when consumed by animals, form animalproteins. The wastes produced by animals and
their dead bodies, will again form nitrogenous organic matter, thus completing the nitrogen cycle.

There may be some short circuits of the cycle, as shown bydotted lines; say for example, the dead
plants may also, on death, lead to formation of organic matterdirectly, without changing into
animalproteins. Similarly, nitrates on denitrification may get converted into free nitrogen (and
sometimes to ammonia), which may be converted into plant proteins, as it may be used by
certainbacteria residing in the plant roots. This is called nitrogen fixation. Blue - green algae also
cause nitrogen fixation.

Carbon Cycle
The carbonaceous organic matter, on oxidation, releases carbon dioxide, which is its final end
product. This CO2, whenused by plants through photosynthesis,getsconverted into
plantcarbohydrates, fatsand proteins (sugars); which when eatenby animals, changeinto animal fats
andproteins.The wastes producedby animalsandtheir dead bodies willagain form carbonaceous
organic matter, thus completing thecarbon cycle.

There maybeshort circuits inthe cycle, as shown by thedottedlines. Organic carbonaceous matter
may be directly formed by the death of plants. Similarly, the plantlife gives off CO2at night, and
the animal lifegives off CO2during respiration. Both theserespiration processes are shown by the
dottedlines inthe above figure.
 Sulphur Cycle
Thiscycleissimilartonitrogencycle. The sulphurous organic matter, on oxidation,producesH2Sgas,
whichon furtheroxidation, changes to sulphur, andthenfinallyto sulphates (SO4--). Sulphates,
whenconsumed by plants through photosynthesis, change into plant proteins; which when eaten
by animals, change into animal proteins. The wastesproduced by animals and theirdead bodies will
again form sulphurous organic matter, thuscompleting the sulphurcycle.

Theremay be short circuits in the cycle, as shown by the dotted lines: organic sulphurous matter
may be directly formed by the death of the plants, without the formation of animal proteins.
Similarly, sulphates in the absence of oxygen will be converted into H2S, by the process of
reduction.

Anaerobic Decomposition: If free dissolved oxygen is not available to the sewage, then anaerobic
decomposition, called putrefaction, will occur. Anaerobic bacteria as well as facultative bacteria
operating anaerobically, will then flourish and convert the complex organic matter into simpler
organiccompounds of nitrogen, carbon, and sulphur. These anaerobic bacteria, infact, survive by
extracting and consuming the bounded molecular oxygen present in compounds like nitrates(NO3)
and sulphates (SO4).Gases like ammonia, nitrogen, hydrogen sulphide, methane, etc. are also
evolved in this decomposition, producing obnoxious odours. The various stages, at whichthese
gases are evolved, are shown in Fig., which represents nitrogen, carbon and sulphur cycles
together,for theabove anaerobicdecomposition. The final equations, representing this
decomposition, are given below:

The organic acids including alcohols produced in above Eq., are further converted intomethane
gas (CH4), carbon dioxide gas (CO2),etc., if methane-forming bacteria are also present in the
sewage. This conversion is represented by the equation:

An understanding of these cycles will help us in determining the decomposition of sewage by

testing for the products of decay. For example, well oxidized sewage will contain nitrates
andsulphates, but ammonia and hydrogen sulphide. On the other hand, lesser oxidized will contain
nitrites and sulphur instead of nitrates and sulphates.

Nitrogen, Carbon and Sulphur Cycles uner anaerobic reduction

TYPICAL WASTEWATER COMPOSITION
STRENGTH OF SEWAGE

The strength sewage is itspotential to produce nuisance to the man and his environment. Itis
expressed in terms of B.O.D. The nuisance is caused by theoxidizable organic matter, which is
unstable in nature, undergoesbiodegradation produces very bad odour and causes insanitaryand
unhealthy environment. If the sewage contains more organicmatter is stronger and if the sewage
contains less organicmatter is considered as less strong.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SEWAGE

Following are the characteristics of sewage:

Physical characteristics:
1) Colour: It indicates the condition of sewage as fresh,stale or septic. Yellow, grey or light brown
colourindicates fresh sewage. Black or dark brown colourindicates stale sewage. Other colours in
sewage aredue to the presence of industrial wastes, dyes etc.
2) Odour: It also indicates whether the sewage is fresh orstale. Fresh domestic sewage has slightly
soapy oroily smell but the stale sewage has of offensive rotten-egg odourdue to liberation of
hydrogen sulphide and othersulphur compounds. The odour of water or wastewater can be
measured by a term called theThreshold odour number (TON), whichrepresents theextent of
dilution required to just make the sample free of odour.The minimum odour of the sample that can
be detected after successive dilutions with odourless medium, is, thus, known as the threshold
odour.The Threshold odour number (TON)can be calculated by the equation:
+
=

Where, Vs = Vol. of sewage
VD = Vol. of distilled or odourless water added to just make sewage sample odour
free.
3) Temperature:Temperature of sewage is measured bymeans of ordinary thermometers, which
should beable to read upto 0.1c. If the temperature of sewage ismore, biological activity is more.
In addition, temperature also affects the viscosity of sewage, which in turn, affects the
sedimentation process in its treatment.
The normal temperature of sewage is generally slightly higher than the temperature of water. The
average temperature of sewage in India is 200C, which is the ideal temperature for biological
activities.
4) Turbidity: It is caused due to the presence ofsuspended matter and colloidal matter. Sewage
isnormally turbid resembling dirty dishwater or wastewater from baths having other floating
matter, faecalmatters etc. The degree of turbidity can be measured and tested by turbidity rods or
by turbidimeters.
5)Solids:Sewage normally contains very small amount of solids in relation, to the huge quantity
of water (99.9%). It only contains about 0.05 to 0.1 percent (i.e. 500 to 1000 mg/l) of total solids.
Solids present in sewage may be in any of the four forms: suspended solids, dissolved solids,
colloidal solids; and settleable solids.
Suspended solids are thosesolids, which remain floating in sewage. Dissolved solids are those,
which remain dissolved in sewage just as salt in water. Colloidal solids are finely divided solids
remaining either in solution or in suspension. Settleable solids are that portion of solid matter,
whichsettles out, if sewage is allowed to remain undisturbed for a period of 2 hours. Theproportion
of these different types of solids is generally found to be as given below:
It is estimated that 1000kgof sewage contains approximately 0.45kg of solids ofwhich 0.225kg is
in dissolved form, 0.112kg insuspension and 0.112kg in settleable form.
Further, solids in sewage comprise of both organic as well as inorganic solids. The organic matter
works out tobe about 45 percent of the total solids and the remainingabout 55 percent is the
inorganic matter.
Inorganic matter consists of minerals and salts, like sand, gravel, debris, dissolved salts,chlorides,
sulphates, etc. Organic matter consists of: carbohydrates such as cellulose, cotton, fibre, starch,
sugar, etc., fats and oils received from kitchens, laundries,garages,shops, etc., nitrogenous
compounds like proteins and their decomposed products, including wastes from animals, urea,
fatty acids, hydrocarbons, etc.
The amounts of various kinds of solids present in sewage can be determined as follows:
(a) The total amount of solids (S1in mg/l) present in a given sewage can be determined by
evaporating a known volume of sewage sample, and weighing the dry residue left. The mass of
the residue divided by the volume of the sample evaporated will represent the total solids in mg/l,
say S1.
(b) The suspended solids (S2) are those solids which are retained by a filter of 1 micrometer pores;
and they are, therefore, also called as non-filterablesolids. Their quantity can be determined by
passing a known volume of sewage sample through a glass-fiber filter apparatus, and weighing the
dry residue left. The mass of the residue divided by the volume of sample filtered will represent
the suspended solids, say (S2),in mg/l.
(c) The difference between the total solids (S1) and the suspended solids (S2) will represent nothing
but dissolved solids plus colloidals, and represents the filterable solids; say S3 where S3 = S1 S2.
(d) Now, the total suspended solids (S2)may either be volatile or fixed. In order to determinetheir
proportion, the non-filtered dry residue of step (b) aboveis burntandignited at about 550C in an
electric muffle furnace for about 15 to 20 minutes. Loss of weight due to ignition willrepresent the
volatile solids in the sample volume filtered through the filter. Let the volatile suspended solids
concentration be S4 (in mg/l). .
(e) The difference S2-S4 = S5 (say) will evidently represent the fixed solids.
(f) The quantity of settleable solids (S6) can be determined easily with the help of a specially
designed conical glass vessel called Imhoff cone. The capacity of the cone is 1 litre, and it
isgraduated up to about 50 ml.
Sewage is allowed to stand in thisImhoff cone for a period oftwo hours, and the quantity of solids
settled in the bottom of the cone can then be directly read out. However in order to obtain precise
amount of settleable solids, the liquid from the cone should be decanted off, and the settleable
solids collected at the bottom of the cone should be driedand weighed.

Fig.: Imhoff cone

Chemical characteristics:
1) pH:The pH value of sewage indicates the negative log ofhydrogen ion concentration present in
sewage.
i.e.,pH= - log H+; or H+ = (10)-pH
It is, thus, an indicator of the alkalinity of sewage. If the pH value is lessthan 7, the sewage is
acidic, and if the pH value is more than 7, the sewage isalkaline. The lesser is the pH value, the
lesser is the alkalinity. The determination of pH value of sewage is important, because of the fact
that efficiency of certain treatment methods depends upon the availability of a suitable pH
value.The pH value can be measured quickly and automatically with the help of a potentiometer.
2) Chloride Contents:Chlorides are generally found present in municipal sewage, and are
derived from the kitchen wastes, human feces, and urinary discharges, etc. The normal
chloride content of domestic sewage is 120 mg/l, whereas, the permissible chloride content for
water supplies is 250 mg/l. However, large amounts of chlorides may enter from industries like
ice cream plants, meat salting, etc.,thus,increasing the chloride contentsof sewage. Hence, when
the chloride content of a given sewage is found to be high,it indicatesthepresence of industrial
wastes or infiltration of sea water, thereby indicating the strength of sewage.Thechloride content
can be measured by titrating the wastewater (i.e. sewage) with standard silver nitrate solution,using
potassium chromate as indicator, as is done for testing water supplies.
3) Nitrogen Contents:The presence of nitrogen in sewage indicates the presence of organic
matter, and may occur in oneor moreof the following forms:
(a) Free ammonia, called Ammonia nitrogen
(b) Albuminoid nitrogen, called Organic nitrogen
(c) Nitrites; and
(d) Nitrates.
As pointed out earlier, the free ammonia indicates the very first stage ofdecompositionof organic
matter (thus indicating recently, staled sewage); albuminoid nitrogen indicates quantityof nitrogen
present in sewage beforethe decomposition of organic matteris started; the nitritesindicate
thepresence of partly decomposed (not fully oxidised) organic matter; andnitratesindicate the
presence of fully oxidised organic matter.
The amount of free ammonia present in sewage canbe easily measured by simply boiling
thesewage, and measuring the amonnia gas which is consequently liberated. The amount of
albuminoid nitrogen can be measured by adding strong alkaline solution of potassium
permanganate (KMnO4) to the already boiled sewage sample and again boiling the same,
whenammonia gas is liberated, which is measured, so as to indicate the amount of Albuminoid
nitrogen (Organic nitrogen) present in sewage.If however an unboiled sampleis used toadd
KMnO4beforeboiling, the evolved ammoniagas will measure the sum total of Ammonianitrogen
as well as Organicnitrogen; and is known as Kjeldahl nitrogen.
The amount of nitrites or nitrates present in sewage sample can be measured by colour
matchingmethods. For nitrites, the colour is developed by adding sulphonilic acid and
naphthamine; whereasfor nitrates, the colour is developed by adding phenol-di-sulphonic acid and
potassiumhydroxide. The colour developed in wastewater is finally compared with the standard
colours of known concentrations.
4) Presence of Fats, Oils and Greases: Greases, fats and oils are derived in sewage from the
discharges of animals and vegetable matter,or from the industries like garages, kitchens of hotels
and restaurants,etc.Such matter form scum on the top of the sedimentation tanks and clog the voids
of the filtering media. They thus interfere with the normal treatment methods, and hence need
proper detection and removal.
The amount of fats and greases in a sewage sample is determined by making use of the fact thatoils
and greases are soluble in ether, and when the ether is evaporated, it leaves behind ether-soluble-
matter, which represents the quantity of fats and oils. Hence, in order to estimate theiramount, a
sample of sewage is, first of all, evaporated. The residual solids left are then mixed with ether
(hexane). The solution is then poured off and evaporated, leaving behind the fats andgreases as a
residue, which can be easily weighed.
5) Oxygen consumed: Oxygen consumed is the oxygen required for the oxidation of carbonaceous
matter. This quantity of oxygen is determined by adding standard amount of potassium
permanganate with diluted sulphuric acid to a sample of wastewater. The reaction is allowed to
take place for periods of 15 minutes and 4 hours at a constant temperature of 180C. The potassium
permanganateliberates oxygen which is consumed by the wastewater. This test is made to
determine the relative strength of sewage (i.e., whetherstrong, mediumor weak),instead of BOD
test. However, this test does not give the total oxygen needed for the biological oxidation of all or
the bulk of the organic matter.
6) Dissolved oxygen: Dissolved oxygen (DO) is the amount of oxygen in the dissolved state in
the wastewater. Though wastewater generally does not have DO, its presence in untreated
wastewaterindicates that the wastewater is fresh. Similarly, its presence in treated
wastewater/effluent indicates that considerable oxidation has been accomplished during the
treatment stages. While discharging the treated wastewater into receiving waters, it is essential to
ensure that atelast 4 ppm of DO is present in it. If DO is less, the aquatic animals like fish etc. are
likely to be killed near the vicinity of disposal. The presence of DO in wastewater is desirable
because it prevents the formation of noxious odours. The actual DO is governed by i) Solubility
of oxygen ii) Partial pressure of oxygen in atmosphere iii) Temperature and iv) Purity of water.
DO of wastewater decreases as the temperature increases. The solubility of DO is only 95% of that
in distilled water. DO content in wastewater may be determined by Winklers method.

Oxygen Demand
The oxygen is demanded in wastewater for oxidation of both organic as well as inorganic matter.
The demand of oxygen may be expressed in the following ways:
1) Biochemical Oxygen Demand. (BOD) 2) Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
3) Total Oxygen Demand (TOD) 4) Theoretical Oxygen Demand (ThOD)
In addition to this the total amount of organic matter present may also be determined by Total
Organic Content (TOC) test.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD): The BOD can be defined as the oxygen required for
biochemical oxidation of organic matterpresent in the water under aerobic conditions. This test is
based on the premise that all thebiodegradable organic matter contained in a water sample will be
oxidized to CO2 and H2Oby microorganisms using molecular oxygen. The BOD may be defined
as the oxygen required for the micro-organisms to carry out biological decomposition of dissolved
solids in wastewater under aerobic conditions at standard temperature. The BOD test results are
used in the following purposes:
i) Determination of approximate quantity of oxygen required for the biological stabilization of
organic matter present in wastewater.
ii) Determination of size of wastewater treatment facilities.
iii) Measurement of efficiency of some treatment processes.
iv) Determination of strength of sewage.
v) Determination of amount of clear water required for the efficient disposal of wastewater by
dilution.

The organic matter present in wastewater may belong to i) Carbonaceous matter, ii) Nitrogenous
matter. The ultimate carbonaceous BOD of a liquid waste is the amount of oxygen necessary for
the micro-organisms in the sample to decompose carbonaceous materials. This is the first stage of
oxidation and the corresponding BOD is called as first stage demand or first stage BOD. In the
second stage, the nitrogenous matter is oxidized and the corresponding BOD is called as second
stage BOD or nitrification demand.

Biochemical oxidation is slow process and theoretically takes an infinite time to go tocompletion
i.e. complete oxidation of organic matter. During the first few days the rate ofoxygen depletion is
rapid because of the high concentration of organic matter present. As the concentration of organic
matter decreases, so does the rate of oxygen consumption. Alsoinitially concentration of easily
biodegradable organic matter will be more and as the timeproceeds fraction of this component will
deplete faster as compared to total organic matterreduction. Hence, during initial days the rate of
BOD exerted will be more as compared tolater days. During the last part of the BOD curve, oxygen
consumption is mostly associatedwith the decay of the bacteria that grew during the early part of
the test. For wastewater likesewage, within 20 day period, the oxidation of carbonaceous organic
matter is about 95 to99% complete, and in the first five days, the period used for BOD
determination, 60 to 70% oxidation is complete. The 20oC temperature used is an average
temperature value typicallyfor slow moving streams in temperate climate. Different results would
be obtained atdifferent temperatures because biochemical reaction rates are temperature
dependent.

The biochemical oxygen demand is represented as BOD5 20oC, which indicates the totalamount
of oxygen consumed for biochemical oxidation of organic matter for first five days at20oC
incubation temperature. Under Indian conditions, the BOD values are acceptable for 3 days
incubation at 27oC temperature. BOD is determined by dilution method. In this, the sample is
diluted with dilution water. The dilution water(distilled water) is aerated for sufficient time to
correct DO close to the saturation value.Nutrients and buffer solutions are added to the dilution
water to provide nutrient for bacterialgrowth and maintain pH near neutral. The initial DO of this
diluted sample is measured. The diluted sample is then incubated for 5 days at 200C in air tight
vessel. The DO of the sample is again measured. The loss of oxygen or the oxygen consumed
during incubation is then found out by calculating the difference between the initial and final
content of DO. BOD is then computed from the relation,
BOD5 = oxygen consumed X dilution factor

Where, =

Say for example, 1% diluted sample means, 1ml of sewage is diluted to make 100 ml of test
sample, and hence dilution factor is 100, as 1 ml has been diluted by 100 times to make 100 ml.

The carbonaceous demand or the first stage BOD of a sewage sample may be represented as shown
in figure called the 1st stage BOD curve. The rate at which BOD is satisfied at any time (i.e., rate
of deoxygenation) depends on the temperature and also on the amount and nature of organic matter
present in sewage at that time.

Fig.: First stage BOD curve

Thus, at a certain temperature, the rate of deoxygenation is assumed to be directly proportional to

the amount of organic matter present in sewage at that time,

=

Where, Lt = oxygen equivalent of organic matter present in sewage after t days from the
start of oxidation in mg/l;
t = time in days
K = rate constant signifying rate of oxidation of organic matter and depends on the
nature of organic matter and temperature. Its unit is per day.

Integrating and simplifying,

( ) =
0

( ) =
0
Using K = rate constant on base 10, K = rate constant on base e

=
2.303

L0 repesents the organic matter present at the start of BOD reaction (expressed as oxygen
equivalent), and Lt is the organic matter present left after t days.
The amount of organic matter oxidized = L0 Lt
If Yt represents the total amount of organic matter oxidized in t days (i.e., the BOD of t days)
then,
Yt = L0 Lt
Or substituting Lt/ L0 and simplifying
= 0 (1 10 )

This is an important equation. Yt is the oxygen absorbed in t days, i.e., BOD of t days.
The ultimate first stage BOD (Yu) would be obtained by substituting t = days.
Simplifying,
Yu = L0
Hence, ultimate first stage BOD (Yu) of a given sewage is equal to initial oxygen equivalent of
organic matter present in the sewage (L0). This is a fixed quantity, and does not depend upon the
temperature of oxidation.

However, the value of K is highly sensitive to the temperature and this relationship is given by,
= 20 1.047(20)
Where, KT is the rate constant at T temperature in 0C
K20 is the rate constant at 200C and value varied from 0.05 to 0.2.

Fig.: Complete BOD Curve

The portion OA in the above curve represents the first stage BOD and the curve AC represents the
nitrification stage, which follows the carbonaceous stage. The oxygen demand associated with the
oxidation of ammonia to nitrate is called thenitrogenous BOD. Due to low growth rate of nitrifying
bacteria, this BOD demand normally occurs from 6 to 10 days. This is one of the reasons to use
incubation period of5 days for BOD determination to eliminate oxygen demand for nitrification
and to find outonly carbonaceous oxygen demand. The BOD curve for the complete oxidation is
represented by OAC.

Interpretation of the BOD test Result

Following factors must be considered in the interpretation of the BOD for industrialwastewaters:
1. The seed is acclimated to the wastewater and lag period required for acclimation is
eliminated.
2. The rate constant should be established based on long term BOD tests on both wastewater
and treated effluents. The rate constant for untreated and treated wastewater is not same
for many wastewaters. The rate constant value is higher for untreated wastewater and lower
for treated wastewater. For example, for raw sewage rate constant is about 0.15 to 0.3 and
that for treated sewage it is around 0.05 to 0.15 (base 10). Hence, direct comparison of
BOD may not be valid. The value of K (base e) for raw sewage varies in the range 0.35 to
0.7 and that for treated sewage it will be 0.12 to 0.23.
3. In case of acidic waste, all samples must be neutralized before incubation.
4. When organic matter is present in suspended form, interpretation of the test result is
difficult due to lag time involved in hydrolysis of organic matter before actual oxidation
starts during BOD test.

Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD): The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of a wastewater is
determined by performing a laboratory test using strong oxidant like dichromate solution.
In order to perform this test, a known quantity of wastewater is mixed with a known quantity of
standard solution of potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7), and the mixture is heated. The organic
matter is oxidized by K2Cr2O7 (in the presence of H2SO4). The resulting solution of K2Cr2O7is
titrated, and the oxygen used in oxidizing the wastewater is determined. It measures the Total
organic matter (biodegradable and non-biodegradable) present in sewage.

Theoretical Oxygen Demand (ThOD): Organic matter is often assessed in terms of oxygen
required to completely oxidize the organic matter to CO2, H2O and other oxidized products. The
oxygen required can be theoretically computed, if the organics present in wastewater are known.
Thus, if chemical formulas and the concentrations of the chemical compounds present in water are
known to us, we can easily compute the theoretical Oxygen Demand of each of these compounds
by writing the balanced reaction for the compound with oxygen to produce the oxidized end
products. For example, for glucose, the theoretical oxygen demandcan be worked out as below:
C6H12O6 + 6O2 ---------------6CO2 + 6H2O

ThOD = (6 MO2) / (M C6H12O6) = (6 x 16 x 2) / (12 x 6 + 1 x 12 + 6 x 16) = 1.07

Total Oxygen Demand (TOD): It is another method to measure organic content in wastewater.
This method is based on quantitative measurement of amount of oxygen used to burn the organix
substances and to some extent inorganic substances. It is the direct measure of oxygen demand of
the sample. The test is conducted in a platinum-catalyzed combustion chamber. The oxidizable
components in a liquid sample are introduced into combustion chamber which are converted to
oxides by reaction this disturbing oxygen equilibrium in the wastewater. This depletion of oxygen
is recorded by an oxygen recorder. The recorded depletion peak of oxygen is compared with
standard peak from TOD calibration chart. This test is carried out rapidly.

Total Organic Carbon (TOC): Another important method of expressing organic matter is in
terms of its carbon content. Carbon is the primary constituent of organic matter. The TOC test
consists ofacidification of wastewater sample to convert inorganic carbon to CO2. The sample is
then injected to high temperature furnace where it is oxidized in presence of catalyst. The CO2 that
is produced is quantitatively measured by using infrared analyser and converted to original organic
carbon content. The major obstacle in using this method is the cost of equipment and the skill
necessary in its operation.

BOD/COD Ratio
Ultimate BOD (BODu) is the oxygen required in oxidizing the biodegradable organics of a given
wastewater. COD, on the other hand, is the oxygen required to oxidize both biodegradable as well
as non-biodegradable organics. Hence, the value of COD will always greater than BODu. The ratio
of BODu/COD ratio will, therefore, always be less than 1.0. If this ratio is found to be between
0.92 to 1.0, the wastewater can be considered to be virtually fully biodegradable. Since, BODu is
not generally measured, the ratio of BOD5/COD, usually referred as BOD/COD ratio, is more
important.
Since, BOD5 is about 68% of BODu, it can be seen that BOD5/COD ratio varied between 0.63 to
0.68. Any wastewater having BOD/COD ratio more than 0.63, can be considered to be quite
amenable to biological treatment, since, it contains very little to zero non-biodegradable organics.

Population Equivalent (PE)

Industrial wastewaters are generally compared with per capita normal domestic wastewaters, so as
to rationally charge the industries for the pollution caused by them. The strength of the industrial
wastewater is, thus, worked out as,

[ ]=[ ] [ ]

The average standard BOD (BOD5) of domestic sewage is worked out to be about 0.08
kg/day/person. Hence, if the BOD5 of sewage coming from an industry is worked out be 300
kg/day, then,
/
=
0.08 //
300
= = 3750
0.08

The value 3750 is the equivalent population producing 300 kg/day of BOD. The population
equivalent, thus, indicates the strength of industrial wastewaters for estimating the treatment
required at the municipal sewage treatment plant, and also helps in assessing the realistic charges
for the treatment to be charged from the industries.

Relative stability (S)

The term relative stability of a treated sewage effluent may be defined as the ratio of oxygen
available in the effluent (as DO) to the total oxygen required to satisfy its first stage BOD demand.
It is expressed by the equation,
= 100[1 0.79420 ]
= 100[1 0.63037 ]
Where, S = relative stability, t20 and t37 represents the time in days for a sewage sample to
decolourise a standard volume of methylene blue solution, when incubated at 200C and 370C
respectively.

The decolourisation caused by enzymes produced by anaerobic bacteria is infact an indication of

available oxygen in oxidisng the unstable organic matter. The sooner the decolourisation takes
place, the earlier the anaerobic conditions develop, which means lesser availability of oxygen.
Hence, if the decolourisation takes place sooner (in less than 4 days or so), the effluent sample
may be taken as relatively unstable (as relativity is less than 0.6). But, samples which do not
decolourise in 4 days can be taken as relatively stable, and thus, discharged into stream without
any troubles.

The above test for determining relative stability is suitable only in case of polluted stream waters
or sewage effluents (i.e., treated sewage). This test is very simple and quickly gives a rough
indication of the character of the treated sewage.

Limitations of BOD test

1. BOD test measures only biodegradable organics.
2. Pretreatment is essential if sample contains toxic wastes.
3. The effects of nitrifying bacteria must be eliminated before the test.
4. High concentration of active bacteria is essential in sample wastewater.
5. The test uses long period of time to obtain results.