TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 2
MATERIAL ...................................................................................................................................................... 3
METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................................ 4
RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................................ 5
DISCUSSIONS ................................................................................................................................................. 6
CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................................... 8
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................................. 9
APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................................... 10

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ABSTRACT
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) is a measure of the oxygen used in bacteria
mediated oxidation of organic substances in water and wastewater. It also can be defined as
a generalized parameter in the environmental monitoring of water and wastewater.
Theoretically, an infinite time is required for complete biochemical oxidation of organic
matter, but the measurement is made over five days test period with or without dilution.
Therefore, this experiment was performed to determine the biochemical oxygen demand of a
sample that has been collect at necessary site. The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5)
consists an important water property for assessing the organic loads of wastewaters. This
study on BOD5 values that collected from wastewaters of sewage at Kolej Kediaman 4
(KK4) in UMP was taken up to develop a basic understanding about the portion of organic
loads in these wastewaters. The study showed that the BOD5 values of the wastewaters
depended on the sources of the wastes. In the experimental section, optimization of
influencing parameters, including pH and initial organic load of synthetic solutions was
performed. The results of BOD analysis for wastewater samples by the proposed
method were comparable with those of the standard manometric method.

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 INTRODUCTION
Discharge of municipal and industrial wastewaters as well as agricultural and
industrial drainage containing organic materials in the water resource cause the reduction
of dissolved oxygen (DO). Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is an empirical parameter that
refers to the amount of required oxygen for microorganisms to oxidize organic materials in
wastewater, effluent, and polluted water samples. (Rezvani Pour, Hassan & Mirghaffari,
Nourollah & Marzban, Mehdi & Marzban, A., 2014). BOD forms the key indicator of organic
load in any wastewater system. This property is expressed as the amount of dissolved oxygen
required by aerobic biological organisms for degrading organic materials present in a given
water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period (Dasgupta M, Yildiz Y, 2016).
Generally, BOD is a test that determines the amount of organic material in wastewater. This
process is conducted by measuring the oxygen consumed by microorganisms in decomposing
organic essential of the waste. This technique is important approach to do where it is an
important water quality parameter because it provides an index to assess the effect discharged
wastewater that have on the receiving environment. Therefore, the higher the BOD value, the
greater the amount of organic matter or “food” available for oxygen consuming bacteria. It have
an organized method in run this experiment where the BOD test is performed by incubating a
sealed wastewater sample for the standard five day period, then determining the change in
dissolved oxygen content.
In theoretical, most wastewaters contain more oxygen demanding materials than the
amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) available in air-saturated water. Because of that, it is
necessary to dilute the sample before incubation to bring the oxygen demand and supply into
appropriate balance. It should be added with dilute water because bacterial growth requires
nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and trace metals, which is buffered to ensure that the pH
of the incubated sample remains in a range suitable for bacterial growth. Two terms that
commonly used in BOD are BODu and BOD5. BODu measure the amount of oxygen usage by
microorganisms over a long period of time. Meanwhile, BOD5 is the common approach in
laboratory where it calculate the amount of oxygen consumed in mg/L over a 5 day period at 20̊
C in dark environment. In other words, BOD5 is a measure of the bioavailability over a 5 days
period under controlled conditions. (Michael R. Penn, James J. Pauer and James R. Mihelcic,
2009).

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MATERIAL

Raw Material

Methanol – Methanol was brought from other country such as India and transport by
shipyard to the Kerteh Terminal Sdn. Bhd. (KTSB). At KTSB, there were
4 tanks for storing the methanol. The feed will be pumped from KTSB to
the British Petrol Petronas Acetyl (BPPA) through piping system.
Carbon Monoxide – Carbon monoxide was one of the wastes produced by the Petronas
Ammonia Sdn. Bhd. (PASB). Thus, carbon monoxide can be supply to
the BPPA through the piping system.

Facilities Related
 Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor (CSTR)
 Electrical Supply
 Control Room
 Pump
 Pipe

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METHODOLOGY

Keep the prepared sample bottles Provide five

in incubator at 20°C 300mL BOD
bottles using
and take reading after 5 days pipet

Add dilution water above Fill each bottle with

stopper and wrap using prepared dilution water to
aluminium foil to preven prevent air bubbles.
evaporation

Use probe to
measure the Insert stopper
dissolve in each bottles
oxygen and invert to
concentration mix them
in each bottle

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RESULTS
Table 1 BOD5

P sample (ml) /
volume of
Group DOimg/L DOf mg/L BOD5 mg/L
sample’s bottle
(ml)

1 7.93 1.22 0.033 203.33

2 7.37 4.42 0.040 73.75

3 7.24 3.44 0.047 80.85

4 7.75 1.76 0.053 113.02

5 7.22 1.11 0.060 101.83

6 (Control) 7.43 5.26 1 2.17

Average BOD5
114.556
mg/L

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DISCUSSIONS
This experiment is about determination of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) in
Wastewater. The test for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is a bioassay procedure that
measures the oxygen consumed by bacteria from the decomposition of organic matter (Sawyer
and McCarty, 1978). Firstly, 5 samples and one control sample were filled in an airtight bottle
and the dissolved oxygen (DO) content of the sample is determined before and after five days of
incubation at 20◦C. The reason for taking 5 days BOD as standard is because of the “Dissolved
Oxygen” present in water gets used for the decomposition of organic matter as well
as nitrogenous matter. From the combined BOD curve, we have two oxygen demands which is
carbonaceous bio chemical oxygen demand (initial) and nitrogenous matter (final). The first 5
days demand is the “Carbonaceous Bio Chemical Oxygen Demand” which accounts for 68% of
the total BOD value. Hence taking the value of 5 days BOD as a standard one represents the
oxygen demand for the decomposition of organic matter only (American Public Health
Association and others, 1995).
Based on Environment Quality Act 1974 under subregulation 7(1)(b) of Environmental
Quality (Sewage) Regulations 2009, acceptable condition of sewage discharge according
Standard A of the Second Schedule where is the limitation of BOD5 parameter is 20 mg/L while
for standard B is 50mg/L. In this experiment, the average concentration BOD5 of the wastewater
sample was 114.556mg/L which exceed the limit of standard A. So the water needs to be treated.
Besides, the environment can be greatly affected by organic pollutants. The local wildlife
can be killed, a decline in population can occur and new diseases can be introduced. The water
can become contaminated, trees and grassland can die or be affected causing more problems with
the wildlife. Organic pollutants are also able to affect the food chain through the process of bio
magnification. In this process, the organic pollutants accumulate in the body fat of living
organisms, becoming more concentrated as they move from one creature to another. (Delzer,
G.C., and McKenzie, S.W., November 2003)
Highly toxic organic compounds have been synthesized and released into the
environment for direct or indirect application over a long period of time. Pesticides, fuels,
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chlorophenols,
and dyes are some of these types of compounds. pesticides are the most important and effective
way to remove these compounds from the environment. Microorganisms have the ability to

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interact, both chemically and physically, with substances leading to structural changes or
complete degradation of the target molecule (Raymond et al, 2001; Wiren-Lehr et al, 2002).
Among the microbial communities, bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes are the main transformers
and pesticide degraders (De Schrijver and De Mot, 1999). Fungi generally biotransform
pesticides and other xenobiotics by introducing minor structural changes to the molecule,
rendering it nontoxic; the bio transformed pesticide is released into the soil, where it is
susceptible to further degradation by bacteria (Gianfreda and Rao, 2004).
Based on the result from Table 1, The initial DO content for 10ml, 12ml, 14ml, 16ml,
18ml and control solution was 7.93mg/l, 7.37mg/l, 7.24mg/l, 7.75mg/l, 7.22mg/l and 7.43mg/l
respectively. The final DO content after incubated was 1.22mg/l, 4.42mg/l, 3.44mg/l, 1.76mg/l,
1.11mg/l and 5.26mg/l respectively. After do calculation the BOD5 of each sample is
203.33mg/l, 73.75mg/l, 80.85mg/l, 113.02mg/l, 101.83 mg/l and 2.17mg/l. Then the average
BOD5 was 114.55 mg/L. But after five days of incubation, the DO final became decreased from
the DO initial. This shows that the reduction of dissolved oxygen happened in the sample where
microorganisms uptake the oxygen. This can be proven when low DO readings signify high
oxygen demand from microorganisms and can lead to possible sources of contamination
depending on the process. From the calculation, the results BOD5 for blank sample was 2.17
mg/L. Theoretically, the final dissolved oxygen concentration for blank sample only slightly
from the initial. However, the final dissolved oxygen for blank sample shown huge different.
This is because the nutrient was not added in blank sample The DO depletion indicate that the
blank sample was highly contaminated. So, some errors occurred. This may be due to poor
quality control during the preparation of the dilution water.
The source can compare with the BOD is
One of the sources that can be comparing to the experimental result is the experiment
carried by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. An experiment is carry out on the
wastewater treatment on sewage plant. The standard requirement also comply on Standard A
requirement which required limit charge of wastewater at 20 mg/L of BOD5. After the
experiment being held, it was conclude that the average value of BOD5 is on average of
14.2mg/L. It was conclude that the wastewater discharged on the standard requirement and can
be considered clean. Thus, it is proven that when the BOD5 is lower than the standard
requirement is considered clean while exceed limit will considered polluted.

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CONCLUSIONS
For a conclusion, the purpose of this experiment to determine the Biological Oxygen
Demand (BOD5) in wastewater is achieved. From the experiment, it is clearly proven that the
sample did not achieve standard requirement form the legal institution. Most of the samples are
calculated to be exceeding the Standard A requirement at 20 mg/L of BOD5. The sample is an
effluent discharged from a wastewater treatment facility. The water was discharged into river
which is located inside the Standard A region. Thus, the discharged water required to comply the
regulation for Standard A requirement. The higher the BOD5 is higher than the standard
required, the sample is considered polluted. As the result shown did not achieving the standard
requirement, the sample need to be treated more efficiently before being discharged into water
body.
For a recommendation for improving the water quality on the sample, it must pass
through an activated sludge process. The process will involve in addition of seeds sludge into the
sample body. The seeds will become food source of aerobic bacteria to consume organic matter
remaining in the sample body. The process will produce large particle that will settle down at the
bottom. Secondly, before discharged the sample, it required a clarifier process to separate the
solid particle from water body. Usually, there are some solid particles that float along with the
discharged water into the environment. Thus, clarifier is a suitable application to suck in the
remaining solid particle for separate it from the water. The remaining solid particle may be
effecting the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) content inside the water removing the solid particle may
increase the DO content while lowering the BOD5 so the legal requirement could be achieved.

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REFERENCES
Books
1. Biological Methods for the Assessment of Water Quality, Symposium on Biological
Methods for the Assessment of Water, ASTM International Publisher, 1973
2. The Determination of Biochemical Oxygen Demand of Industrial Wastes and Sewage by
Emery Joseph Theriault, Harry Britton Hommon, U.S. Government Printing Office
Publisher, 1918 –Biochemical Oxygen Demand – 16 pages
3. Environmental Bioengineering by Lawrence K. Wang, Joo-Hwa Tay, Stephen Tiong Lee
Tay, Yung-Tse Hung, Springer Science & Business Media Publisher, 25 Jun 2010 –
Science- 867 pages
Internet
1. https://www.scribd.com/document/358862630/Lab-Report-Part-b-Bod-Full
2. https://www.pharmaguideline.com/2013/06/determination-of-biological-oxygen.html
3. http://butane.chem.uiuc.edu/pshapley/Environmental/L31/1.html

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APPENDIX

Picture 1 show sample is calibrated after 5 day inside incubator.

Picture 2 show data of samples written on white board as raw record.

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