FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCES

B. Sc. (Hons.) ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY

EVT 577 : WASTEWATER TECHNOLOGY

LAB NO

: 2

TITLE

: CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMANDS (COD)

GROUP

: AS2294A

GRADER

: NURUL NADIAH MOHD FIRDAUS

DATE OF
EXPERIMENT

: 17 MARCH 2016

NAME / STUDENT ID :

1) MUHAMAD FADZRIL BIN AFINDI

2014860708
2) FAIZAL BIN ALIAS
2014225942
3) MOHD FAHMI BIN MOHD YUSOF
2014415098

INTRODUCTION

The chemical oxygen demand (COD) is the amount of oxygen

consumed to completely chemically oxidize the organic water constituents
to inorganic end products. COD is an important, rapidly measured variable
for the approximate determination of the organic matter content of water
samples. Some water samples may contain substances that are difficult to
oxidize. In these cases, because of incomplete oxidation under the given
test methods, COD values may be a poor measure of the theoretical
oxygen demand. It should also be noted that the significance of the COD
value depends on the composition of the water studied. COD is used as a
measurement of pollutants in natural and waste waters to assess the
strength of discharged waste such as sewage and industrial effluent
waters. It is normally measured in both municipal and industrial
wastewater treatment plants and gives an indication of the efficiency of
the treatment process. The dichromate reflux method is preferred over
procedures using other oxidants because of superior oxidizing ability,
applicability to a wide variety of samples, and ease of manipulation.
Oxidation of most organic compounds is 95-100% the theoretical value.
OBJECTIVES
To determine the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) in a water sample.
METHOD
1) DICHROMATE (OPEN REFLUX)
1. 50 ml of wastewater sample was placed in refluxing flask. The blank
was prepared using 50 ml of deionised water.
2. 5 to 7 glass boiling beads was added.
3. 1 g of mercuric sulphate (HgSO4) and 5 ml of concentrated sulphuric
acid-silver sulphate solution was added and mixed until the HgSO4 is
in solution.
4. 25 ml of 0.25 N potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) was accurately
added and mixed.
5. An additional 70 ml of concentrated sulphuric acid-silver sulphate
solution was added while mixing.
6. After through mixing, the flask was attached to reflux condenser and
heat was applied for 2 hours.
7. A reagent blank containing 50 ml of deionised water was treated
with the same reagent. FAS solution was standardized while waiting
2 hours of digestion.
8. After 2 hours reflux, the apparatus was cooled to room temperature.
The interior of the condenser and the flask was washed down twice
with approximately 25 ml portions of distilled water.
9. 4 to 5 drops of Ferroin indicator and magnetic strirring bar was
added.

10.
The flasks was placed on a magnetic stirrer and was rapidly
titrated with 0.1 N ferrous ammonium sulphate to the first red-brown
endpoint.
2) REACTOR DIGESTION (CLOSE REFLUX)
1. The COD reactor was turned on and was preheat to 150 . The
safety shield was placed in front of the reactor.
2. The caps of a COD digestion reagent vials was removed for the
appropriate range.
3. The vials was hold at a 45 angle. 2.0 ml of the sample was
pipetted into the vial.
4. The vials was capped tightly. The outside of the COD vial was rinsed
with deionised water and the vial was wipe cleaned with paper
towel.
5. The vial cap was hold and over a sink. It was gently inverted several
times to mix the contents. The vial was placed in the preheat COD
reactor.
6. A blank was prepared by repeating steps 2 to 5, substituting 2.0 ml
deionised water for the sample.
7. The vials was heated for 2 hours.
8. The reactor was turned off and waited about 20 minutes for the vials
to cool to 120 or less.
9. Each vial was inverted several times while still warm. The vials was
placed into a rack and cooled to room temperature.
10.
The was proceed to the colorimetric determination to measure
the COD.

RESULTS AND CALCULATIONS

1. DICHROMATE (OPEN REFLUX)
INITIAL VOLUME OF SAMPLE = 50 mL
FINAL VOLUME OF SAMPLE = 47.8 mL
BLANK A = 60.4
BLANK B = 57.6
NORMALITY OF FAS =

( mL K 2 Cr 2 O7 ) (0.25)
mL FAS requir ed
=

10 (0.25)
47.8

= 0.052 mL

BLANK A =

( 60.447.8 ) ( 0.052 ) X 8000

50 mL

BLANK B =

( 57.647.8 )( 0.052 ) X 8000

50 mL
= 104.83 mg/L

= 81.54 mg/L

2. REACTOR DIGESTION (CLOSE REFLUX)

BLANK = 0 mg/L
STANDARD = 97 mg/L
SAMPLE = 193 mg/L

DISCUSSIONS
From the experiment of open reflux, most types of organic matter
are oxidized by a boiling mixture of chromic and sulfuric acids. A sample is
refluxed in strongly acid solution with a known excess of potassium
dichromate (K2Cr2O7). After digestion, the remaining unreduced K2Cr2O7 is
titrated with ferrous ammonium sulfate to determine the amount of
K2Cr2O7 consumed and the oxidizable matter is calculated in terms of
oxygen equivalent. Keep ratios of reagent weights, volumes, and strengths
constant when sample volumes other than 50 mL are used. The standard
2-h reflux time may be reduced if it has been shown that a shorter period
yields the same results. Some samples with very low COD or with highly
heterogeneous solids content may need to be analyzed in replicate to
yield the most reliable data. Results are further enhanced by reacting a
maximum quantity of dichromate, provided that some residual dichromate
remains.
In the reactor digestion method test, the COD procedure is greatly
simplified over the Dichromate Reflux Method. Small volume of the water
sample is pipette into vials containing the pre-measured reagents,
including catalysts and chloride compensator. The vials are incubated until
digestion is complete and then cooled. The COD determination is made
with the spectrophotometer.

CONCLUSIONS
The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) has been determined. The
normality of FAS have obtained to be 0.052 and from FAS, the calculation
of COD can make to get the result for the sample. From the calculation of
open reflux method, were obtain 104.83 mg/L for blank A while 81.54 mg/L
for blank B of COD value. The sample was use the amount of oxygen
(COD) consumed to completely chemically oxidize the organic water
constituents to inorganic end products. For the reactor digestion method,
the COD result for blank, standard and sample has to be 0, 97, and 193
mg/L.

REFERENCES
1. www.pavloschemicals.com/lab
2. https://www.norweco.com/html/lab/test_methods/5220bfp.htm
3. www.labseeker.com/labsupplies/lablist

QUESTIONS
1.

What is the purpose of using blank sample in the

experiment?
-

2.

The main reason for using the blank sample is to control the
volume of organic material in the sample. COD was carried
out to measure the oxygen demand of organic compounds in a
sample of water, and we have to ensure there were no
accidentally outside organic materials added to the sample to
be measured. A blank sample is created by adding the
reagents to a volume of distilled water. Both water and blank
sample will be compared. The oxygen demand for the blank
sample is subtracted from the COD for the original sample to
ensure the true measurement of organic matter.

What is the objective of COD test and what is the different

between COD and BOD test?
-

The chemical oxygen demand (COD) is the amount of oxygen

consumed to completely chemically oxidize the organic water
constituents to inorganic end products. It was carrying out to

determine the organic oxidize able matters content of water

samples. While, Biochemical Oxygen Demand is a common,
environmental procedure for determining the extent to which
oxygen within a sample can support microbial life.

3.

While BOD describes the biological oxidation capacity of a

wastewater, it is not a measure of the total potential oxidation
of the organic compounds present in the wastewater. A
number of chemical tests are used to measure this parameter,
either in terms of the oxygen required for virtually complete
oxidation, or in terms of the element carbon. Probably the
most common test for estimating industrial wastewater
strength is the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) Test. This
test essentially measures the chemical oxidation of the
wastewater by a strong oxidizing agent in an acid solution.
The value for the COD test is always greater than the BOD test
and is not always a good indication of BOD values for the same
waste.

Because the COD test oxidizes both biologically degradable

and unbiodegradable organic materials, the energy available
for biological action is usually overestimated. However, this
does not reduce the usefulness of the test. If it is assumed that
the fraction of organic material that is not oxidized in the COD
test remains constant, then any change in COD between two
points in the process provides an assessment (in terms of
oxygen) of corresponding energy change. The change in COD
then can be used to establish the kinetics of energy conversion
in the process, i.e., the energy removal can be directly linked
to the COD change. By contrast, BOD5 values require a
correction factor to correspond the energy changes, because
the test values do not reflect the total oxygen demand.

Why the CODs value needs to be monitor for the polluted

surface water such as in lakes and rivers as well as for
waste water?
-

In environmental, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) test is

commonly used to indirectly measure the amount of organic
compounds in water. Most applications of COD determine the
amount of organic pollutants found in surface water such as lakes

and rivers, making COD a useful measure of water quality. The

amount of organic matter in the lake or river will show the index
of the water quality and we also can categorize whether the lake
or river extremely polluted or not.