CHBE 373 Water Pollution Control

Mid-term Exam
October 23, 2014
Examiner:
Duration:
Type:

Madjid Mohseni
70 minutes
closed book, closed notes, one double-sided sheet is allowed

FOUR PAGES IN TOTAL

Question 1 (9 points)
i. Give at least 3 reasons why an indicator organism is used for testing the quality water for
pathogens.
a. Accurately test acute toxicity: the organisms are sensitive to detect common
environmental pollutants at low concentrations
b. They can distinguish between different levels of toxicity using LC50
c. They can distinguish different types of toxins with different target organisms
d. Results are reproducible
ii.

Why is BOD5 more commonly used than UBOD as an indicator of the presence of
biodegradable compounds in wastewater?
a. Because BOD5 takes only 5 days and UBOD would take too long

iii.

Very briefly explain why this statement is false. In sedimentation, the higher the critical
velocity of the sedimentation basin, the more effective the separation of particles
a. The higher the critical velocity, the higher the settling velocity is needed to get a higher
efficiency because e = vs/vc, if vs is constant and vc goes up e goes down.

Question 2 (16 points)

Indicate whether the following statements are TRUE or FALSE.
a) Particles
would
settle
faster
if
the
water
TRUE? High temp, lower density

temperature

was

higher.

b) Mercury is used to prevent the interference of chloride ions with the BOD test.
FALSE (COD)
c) The presence of aerobic bacteria in wastewater negatively interferes with the determination of
BOD.
FALSE, WE WANT AEROBIC BACTERIA TO CONSUME OXYGEN
d) A river receiving an oxygen demanding effluent from an industrial plant would have a higher
COD
concentration
than
one
not
receiving
any industrial
discharge.
TRUE
e) Microtox test allow assessing the overall chronic toxicity of wastewater, but without being able
to
identify
the
compound
responsible
for
the
toxicity.
FALSE

GOOD LUCK

f) In Type 1 regime sedimentation: for non-spherical particles whose terminal velocity is lower
than the critical velocity, the removed fraction is the ratio between the terminal velocity of the
particle
and
the
critical
velocity
of
the
basin.
YES
g) In Type 1 sedimentation: the terminal settling velocity depends on the size, diameter, and
concentration
of
the
particles.
FALSE
h) In sedimentation: The lower the critical velocity of the sedimentation basin, the more effective
the
separation
of
particulate.
YES
i) BONUS: I feel that I am considerably smarter than the person sitting next to me right now.
Question 3 (12 points)
A waste has a total, dissolved solids concentration of 350 mg/L and total volatile solids (TVS)
concentration of 250 mg/L. The COD is measured as 380 mg/L, and a chemical analysis of the organic
compounds gives an empirical formula of CH2O. The BOD5 is measured as 220 mg/L (assume the K
value to be 0.1/d).
a) Determine the theoretical oxygen demand
TOD: CH2O + O2 CO2 + H2O
1 mol O2/mol CH2O x 32 g O2 / mol O2 = 32g O2/mol CH2O
b) Determine the ultimate BOD
BOD(t) = UBOD(1-10^Kt), given t = 5, K = 0.1/day
c) Determine the degradability of the waste
What is this?

Question 4 (18 points)

A pharmaceutical industry generates a wastewater that contains
organic toxic compounds. You also know the following information
about this wastewater: TOC= 450 mg L-1; DO= 3.2 mg L-1, free
chlorine= 0 mg L-1, BOD5=320 mg L-1, pH=7.1, CaCO3= 5.7 mg L-1.
They treat their wastewater with coagulation/flocculation,
sedimentation, and filtration. Finally, they add chlorine to disinfect
the water. The treated water they obtain has the following properties:
TOC= 4 mg L-1; DO= 7 mg L-1, free chlorine= 60 mg L-1, BOD5=2
mg L-1, pH=7.4, CaCO3= 4 mg L-1.
To assess the efficiency of the treatment process, they measured the
toxicity of the wastewater by carrying out a toxicity bioassay using
Daphnia magna (water flea). The bioassays were carried out at
identical conditions. The results are in the Figure.

GOOD LUCK

a) Calculate the LC50 before and after the treatment.

b) Are these the expected results? Explain and justify the results you obtain (in one or two
sentences max)
c) What would you change in the treatment to improve the results?

Question 5 (20 points)

An effluent only contains glucose (C6H12O6), nitrobenzene (C6H5NO2), and sodium carbonate (Na2CO3).
BOD5 is 25 mg L-1, DOC of the effluent is 28 mg L-1, TDS is 73 mg L-1, pH is 11, and the concentration
of dissolved oxygen is 3.1 mg L-1. Determine the concentration of glucose, nitrobenzene, and sodium
carbonate in mg L-1.
Additional data:
Glucose

Nitrobenzene

Sodium carbonate

Molecular formula

C6H12O6

C6H5NO2

Na2CO3

Solubility in water:

910 g L-1

1.8 g L-1

70 g L-1

Boiling point

Decomposes at 145C

MW

180.16 g mol

Biodegradable

Yes

-1

210.9 C
123.06 g mol
No

1600 C
-1

105.99 g mol-1
Inorganic

Additional data: For BOD, K=0.13 day-1

Question 6: (25 points)

A flowrate of 15 m3 min-1 of a wastewater is treated with a type 1 sedimentation basin. There are only
two different sizes of particulate (15 mg/L of particles of 50 microns and 50 mg/L of particles of 70
microns). The density of the particles is 1143 kg m -3. Assume that the density of water is 1000 Kg m -3,
the viscosity of water is 1.110-4 N s m-2, and the temperature of the wastewater is 20C. If the basin is
currently achieving 75% removal efficiency for the 70 microns particles, what is the overall efficiency
(taking into account 50 and 70 microns)?

GOOD LUCK

FORMULAS
D1 D2
P
( D D2 ) ( B1 B2 ) f
BOD (mg / L) 1
P
BOD (mg / L)

BOD (at any time, t ) BODu (1 10 Kt )

D1: initial DO of the diluted wastewater - mg/L

D2: final DO of the diluted wastewater after incubation - mg/L
B1: initial DO of the seed sample (control) mg/L
B2: final DO of the seed sample (control) after incubation mg/L
f:
ratio of seed in sample to seed in control (seed in D1 to seed in B1)
P:
decimal fraction of the wastewater sample use
BODu: ultimate BOD
K:
rate constant for BOD (d-1)

Reynolds number: Rep

v s dp

24
for Re 1 laminar
Re
Drag coefficient: Cd
24 3 0.34 for 1 Re 10000 transition
Re
Re
Terminal or settling velocity:

vs
vs

4 g p - w dp
3 Cd

g p - w dp2
18

for Re 1 laminar

Critical velocity in a sedimentation basin: v c

GOOD LUCK

Q
A