Duhok polytechnic university

Faculty of Petrochemical Engineering

School pollution control

Laboratory of environment pollution control

EXPERIMENT NUMBER one

Controlling pollution by BOD & COD & D𝑂2 &

Spectrophotometer & flame meter

Instructor: Mr. Kawar

Author Name: Muhammad Akram
Report Submitted on: 14/MAY /2018
Group: A
Exp 1: COD

CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND:

Chemical oxygen demand (COD) is defined as the amount of a
specified oxidant that reacts withthe sample under controlled
conditions. The quantity of oxidant consumed is expressed in
terms of its oxygen equivalence. Because of its unique chemical
properties, the dichromate ion (Cr2O7=) is the specified oxidant,
and is reduced to the chromic ion (Cr+3). Both organic and
inorganic components of a sample are subject to oxidation, but
in most cases the organic component predominates and is of the
greater interest .
Theory:
Chemical oxygen demand (COD) is defined as the amount of a
specified oxidant that reacts with the sample under controlled
conditions. The quantity of oxidant consumed is expressed in
terms of its oxygen equivalence. Because of its unique chemical
properties, the dichromate ion (Cr2O72) is the specified oxidant
in Methods 5220B, C, and D; it is reduced to the chromic ion
(Cr3) in these tests. Both organic and inorganic components of a
sample are subject to oxidation, but in most cases the organic
component predominates and is of the greater interest. If it is
desired to measure either organic or inorganic COD alone,
additional steps not described here must be taken to distinguish
one from the other. COD is a de fined test; the extent of sample
oxidation can be affected by digestion time, reagent strength,
and sample COD concentration. COD often is used as a
measurement of pollutants in wastewater and natural waters.
Other related analytical values are biochemical oxygen demand
(BOD), total organic carbon (TOC), and total oxygen demand
(TOD). In many cases it is possible to correlate two or more of
these values for a given sample. BOD is a measure of oxygen
consumed by microorganisms under specific conditions; TOC is
a measure of organic carbon in a sample; TOD is a measure of
the amount of oxygen consumed by all elements in a sample
when complete (total) oxidation is achieved.
Exp 2:
Dissolved oxygen in water:
Dissolved oxygen refers to the level of free, non-compound
oxygen present in water or other liquids. It is an important
parameter in assessing water quality because of its influence on
the organisms living within a body of water. In limnology (the
study of lakes), dissolved oxygen is an essential factor second
only to water itself ¹. A dissolved oxygen level that is too high
or too low can harm aquatic life and affect water quality.
Non-compound oxygen, or free oxygen (O2), is oxygen that is
not bonded to any other element. Dissolved oxygen is the
presence of these free O2 molecules within [Link] bonded
oxygen molecule in water (H2O) is in a compound and does not
count toward dissolved oxygen levels. One can imagine that free
oxygen molecules dissolve in water much the way salt or sugar
does when it is stirred.
Theory:
The concentration of oxygen is usually expressed in milligrams
of oxygen per liter (mg/L) of water, or parts per million (ppm).
Electrodes measure the partial pressure of the oxygen, which is
the fraction due to oxygen multiplied by the total pressure (due
to oxygen and all the other components of air, such as nitrogen
or water vapor). For a given partial pressure of oxygen in the air,
the concentration that will be present in saturated pure water is
fixed at anyone temperature, and has been measured by many
scientists over the years. These tables are built into modern
oxygen meters, which compensate automatically for
temperature. These meters will compare the calculated
concentration with the observed, and report a percent saturation.
One difficulty with this calculation is that the presence of
dissolved salts in the water lowers the amount of oxygen that
can dissolve, and the relationship between partial pressure and
concentration is different. These relationships have been worked
out for natural waters of varying salinity and some meters
contain this information, as well. This correction is commonly
called salinity correction.
Exp 3:
Biochemical Oxygen Demand:
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD, also called Biological
Oxygen Demand) is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed (i.e.
demanded) by aerobic biological organisms to break down
organic material present in a given water sample at certain
temperature over a specific time period. The BOD value is most
commonly expressed in milligrams of oxygen consumed per
litre of sample during 5 days of incubation at 20 °C and is often
used as a surrogate of the degree of organic pollution of water.
BOD is similar in function to chemical oxygen demand (COD),
in that both measure the amount of organic compounds in water.
However, COD is less specific, since it measures everything that
can be chemically oxidized, rather than just levels of
biodegradable organic matter.
Theory:
All the aquatic animals rely on the oxygen present in the water
(dissolved oxygen) to live. Aquatic microorganisms use the organic
matter discharged into the water as food source. Common natural
sources of organic matter include plant decay and leaf fall. Bacteria will
break down this organic matter using the dissolved oxygen in the water
and there by produce less complex organic substances. With increased
disposal of waste materials (including organic compounds), the utility of
dissolved oxygen by the microorganisms will also increased. So the
water becomes depleted in oxygen. In this anaerobic condition,
microorganisms will produce offensive products and may result in
undesirable effects like fish asphyxiation. So the amount of dissolved
oxygen in the water is an indicator of the quality of water.
Biological oxygen demand is a widely used technique to express the
concentration of organic matter in waste water samples. It is a measure
of the amount of dissolved oxygen used by microorganisms in the water.
If the amount of organic matter in sewage is more, the more oxygen will
be utilized by microorganisms to degrade dumping sewage which
containing high BOD value. Digestion of these organic compounds in
neutral ecosystem such as lakes, rivers [Link] deplete available oxygen
and result in fish asphyxiation
Exp 4:
Atomic absorption spectroscopy:
Atomic absorption methods measure the amount of energy (in the form
of photons of light, and thus a change in the wavelength) absorbed by
the sample. Specifically, a detector measures the wavelengths of light
transmitted by the sample (the "after" wavelengths), and compares them
to the wavelengths, which originally passed through the sample (the
"before" wavelengths). A signal processor then integrates the changes in
wavelength, which appear in the readout as peaks of energy absorption
at discrete wavelengths.
Any atom has its own distinct pattern of wavelengths at which it will
absorb energy, due to the unique configuration of electrons in its outer
shell. This allows for the qualitative analysis of a pure sample.
Theory:
In order to tell how much of a known element is present in a
sample, one must first establish a basis for comparison using
known quantities. It can be done producing a calibration curve.
For this process, a known wavelength is selected, and the
detector will measure only the energy emitted at that
wavelength. However, as the concentration of the target atom in
the sample increases, absorption will also increase
proportionally. Thus, one runs a series of known concentrations
of some compound, and records the corresponding degree of
absorbance, which is an inverse percentage of light transmitted.
A straight line can then be drawn between all of the known
points. From this line, one can then extrapolate the concentration
of the substance under investigation from its absorbance. The
use of special light sources and specific wavelength selection
allows the quantitative determination of individual components
of a multielement mixture.
Exp 5:
Absorption of light by CECIL spectrophotometer:
absorption of electromagnetic radiation is the way in which the
energy of a photon is taken up by matter, typically the electrons
of an atom. Thus, the electromagnetic energy is transformed into
internal energy of the absorber, for example thermal energy .The
reduction in intensity of a light wave propagating through a
medium by absorption of a part of its photons is often called
attenuation. Usually, the absorption of waves does not depend
on their intensity (linear absorption), although in certain
conditions (usually, in optics), the medium changes its
transparency dependently on the intensity of waves going
through, and saturable absorption (or nonlinear absorption)
occurs.
Theory:
A material's absorption spectrum is the fraction of incident
radiation absorbed by the material over a range of frequencies.
The absorption spectrum is primarily determined by the atomic
and molecular composition of the material. Radiation is more
likely to be absorbed at frequencies that match the energy
difference between two quantum mechanical states of the
molecules. The absorption that occurs due to a transition
between two states is referred to as an absorption line and a
spectrum is typically composed of many lines.
The frequencies where absorption lines occur, as well as their
relative intensities, primarily depend on the electronic and
molecular structure of the sample. The frequencies will also
depend on the interactions between molecules in the sample, the
crystal structure in solids, and on several environmental factors
(e.g., temperature, pressure, electromagnetic field). The lines
will also have a width and shape that are primarily determined
by the spectral density or the density of states of the system.
Discussion:
These experiment is about to find the amount of chemical in
water by wavelength by some device and we learned how to do
it and to find the absorption of light by spectrum of ion and also
the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water by DO meter .
From flash photometer we determine the the amount of
chemicals by inserting heat and each substance change the
colour and after that we can determine the amount of substance.
These experiment is all about pollution control of environment
whether if its water or air by determining the chemicals.