ESTIMATION OF OXYGEN CONSUMED LEVEL OF SOLID ORGANIC WASTE USING OXIDIMETRIC METHOD AND EXPERIMENTAL ASPECT A COMPARATIVE STUDY

BY

RAPHAEL AIYEDIPE PGS/2008/2009/4020293

MSc Thesis Proposal Chemistry Programme, School of Science,

A.T.B.U Bauchi

Supervisor Dr. E. O. Ekanem

Introduction On a worldwide scale, rapid population growth and urbanisation have led to an enormous increase of solid waste generation per unit area. Particularly urban and periurban areas of low and middle income countries are confronted with great challenges concerning appropriate solid waste management in order to minimise the risk to human health and avoid environmental degradation. However, most municipalities struggle to provide sufficient and adequate SWM services (Kassim & Ali, 2006). Considering the fact that the largest fraction of waste in developing countries is of organic nature and therefore amendable to anaerobic digestion, it makes environmental and economic sense to survey this option. The impact of organic solid waste disposal into water bodies in the worlds two famous mega cities, Jarkata, India and Lagos, Nigeria had been reported in UNESCO (2000), Awosika et al., (2000). Direct discharge of untreated domestic wastes such as kitchen wastes, faeces and urine into the Lagos lagoon systems threaten the aquatic ecosystem in many ways. These include causing an increase in the microbial load in these water bodies, nutrient enrichment, pollution of the soil and aquatic environments (Oyelola and Babatunde, 2008) as well as the availability of substratum for bacterial growth. It also causes a reduction in dissolved oxygen level, reduction in the distribution and diversity of organisms and reduction in transparency due to the presence of undissolved solids and eutrophication (Harold, 1997). Oxygen-consuming wastes comprise of raw sewage from municipalities and other wastes from paper mills, tanneries, food-processing plants and agriculture; these cause

a proliferation of aerobic decomposers who consume dissolved oxygen (DO) in water more rapidly than it can be replaced by the atmosphere. Organic matter undergoes oxidation in rivers under the action of micro-organisms. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is a measure of demand for oxygen utilized by micro-organism, during oxidation of organic matter. It is defined as the amount of oxygen in milligram per liter or in ppm used by micro-organisms to degrade the organic matter. A high BOD value indicates more polluted water. The dissolved oxygen in rivers and other water bodies is usually sufficient to decompose only small or treated discharge of such waste. The products formed during aerobic decomposition e.g. CO2, SO42-, NH4+ or NO3- ions do not cause much pollution.

JUSTIFICATION Estimation of oxygen consumed level of solid organic waste by oxidimetric method and comparing with other experimental methods will go a long way to give information on a better way of overcoming the interference experienced by other experimental methods, which are caused by various materials including iron salts, organic matter, excessive suspended matter, sulfide, sulfur dioxide, residual chlorine, chromium, cyanide, and certain oxidizing and reducing agents

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY This project presents the comparison between oxidimetric method with other experimental methods in the estimation of oxygen consumed level of solid organic waste.

SCOPE OF STUDY The scope of this work is use oxidimetric method to determine the oxygen consumed level of organic solid waste and compare with other experimental methods. LIMITATIONS Possible limitation to this work would be inability to construct solid waste monitoring wells within the vicinity of the solid organic waste site for estimation of oxygen consumed level on the site.

LITERATURE REVIEW WASTE Waste is unwanted or unusable materials (rubbish, trash, refuse, garbage, or junk). In living organisms, waste is the unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from them. More commonly, waste refers to the materials that are disposed of in a system of waste management. Waste is directly linked to human development, both technologically and socially. The composition of different wastes have varied over time and location, with industrial development and innovation being directly linked to waste materials. Examples of this include plastics and nuclear technology. Some components of waste have economical value and can be recycled once correctly recovered. Most common practices of waste processing are uncontrolled dumping which causes mainly water and soil pollution. Besides dumping or sanitary land filling, Waste is sometimes a subjective concept, because items that some people discard may have value to others. It is widely recognized that waste materials are a valuable resource, whilst there is debate as to how this value is best realized.

ORGANIC SOLID WASTE

OXYGEN DEPLETION

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho who compiled the research, reports that within the past several years, scientists have found that oxygen (O2) in the atmosphere has been dropping, and at higher rates than just the amount that goes into the increase of CO2 from burning fossil fuels, aerobic decomposition of organic waste, some 2 to 4-times as much, and accelerating since 2002-2003. Simultaneously, oxygen levels in the worlds oceans have also been falling. Although the causes for the sudden acceleration in oxygen depletion are yet unclear, changes to natural ecosystems through deforestation and the expansion of agriculture could be playing a significant role. It is becoming clear, that reducing CO2 emissions is not enough; oxygen has its own dynamic and the rapid decline in atmospheric O2 must also be addressed. Although there is much more O2 than CO2 in the atmosphere 20.95 percent or 209 460 ppm of O2 compared with around 380 ppm of CO2 humans, all mammals, birds, frogs, butterfly, bees, and other air-breathing life-forms depend on this high level of oxygen for their well being. In humans, failure of oxygen energy metabolism is the single most important risk factor for chronic diseases including cancer and death. Oxygen deficiency is currently set at 19.5 percent in enclosed spaces for health and safety below that, fainting and death may result.

The simultaneous decrease in ocean oxygen not only threatens the survival of aerobic marine organisms, but is symptomatic of the slow-down in the oceans thermohaline conveyor belt circulation system that transports heat from the tropics to the poles, overturns surface layers of into the deep and vice versa, redistributing nutrients and

gases for the ocean biosphere, and regulating rainfall and temperatures on the landmasses. Changes to the thermohaline could wipe out the oceans phytoplankton thats ultimately responsible for splitting water to regenerate oxygen for the entire biosphere, on land and in the sea.

DISSOLVED OXYGEN

DISSOLVED OXYGEN (DO) LEVELS Dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in natural and waste waters depend on the physical, chemical and biological activities in the water body and its determination is a key test in water pollution and wastewater treatment process control. Before selecting a method for the determination of DO in water samples, the effect of interference, especially oxidizing and reducing materials that may be present in the sample are considered. Certain oxidizing agents liberate iodine from iodides (positive interference) and some reducing agents reduce iodine to iodide (negative interference). Most organic matter is oxidized partially when the oxidized manganese precipitate is acidified, thus causing negative errors. There are basically two methods of DO determination; the Winkler or iodometric method and the electrometric method, which uses electrodes. The iodometric method is a titration procedure based on the oxidizing property of DO while the membrane electrode procedure is based on the rate of diffusion of molecular oxygen across a

membrane. The choice of procedure depends on the interference present, the accuracy desired and in some cases convenience and experience. Several modifications have been made on the iodometric method to minimize the effect of interference, among which is the Azide modification, the permanganate modification, the alum flocculation modification and the cupper sullfate-sulframic acid flocculation modification. The Azide modification of the Winkler technique will be employed in this practical. This method is appropriate for most wastewater and effluents, (which constitute our samples) and is the most precise and reliable titrimetric procedure for DO analyses. It effectively removes interferences caused by nitrite, which is the most common interference in biologically treated effluents and incubated BOD samples. DISSOLVED OXYGEN MEASUREMET WINKLER METHOD

ELECTROANALYTICAL METHOD OXIDIMETRIC METHOD

CHAPTER THREE MATERIALS AND METHODS