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School of Applied Natural Sciences

1) The document describes a procedure for conducting a chemical oxygen demand (COD) test to measure the amount of organic compounds in a water sample. 2) The COD test involves adding oxidizing agents to the water sample and heating it to oxidize organic matter, then titrating the remaining oxidizing agent to determine how much was consumed. 3) For the experiment described, the COD of a tap water sample was calculated to be 64 mg/L, indicating a low level of pollutants, which is reasonable for drinking water.

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88 views

School of Applied Natural Sciences

1) The document describes a procedure for conducting a chemical oxygen demand (COD) test to measure the amount of organic compounds in a water sample. 2) The COD test involves adding oxidizing agents to the water sample and heating it to oxidize organic matter, then titrating the remaining oxidizing agent to determine how much was consumed. 3) For the experiment described, the COD of a tap water sample was calculated to be 64 mg/L, indicating a low level of pollutants, which is reasonable for drinking water.

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School of Applied Natural Sciences Department of Water and Environmental Engineering Water and Wastewater Treatment (WEEM 351)

Dr Muna Al-Banna

Name of the experiment: COD Test Date 23rd may 2010

Introduction
Chemical oxygen demand (COD) is a measure of the capacity of water to consume oxygen during the decomposition of organic matter and the oxidation of inorganic chemicals such as ammonia and nitrite. Its unit of measurement is mg/L. The COD test gives us an indication of the strength of the waste present in the water sample. COD is considered a useful measure of water quality. This test is done by adding a strong oxidizing agent, such as K 2Cr2O7, but under certain conditions; the sample must be strongly acidic, and it should have high temperature (150 C) for two hours, and a catalyst (Ag) should be, to speed up the reaction. The reaction would be: Organic matter + Cr2O7 ---------------- >C02 + H20 + Cr3After digestion, the remaining unreduced K2Cr2O7 is titrated with ferrous ammonium sulfate (F.O.S) to determine the amount of K2Cr2O7 consumed, and thus the oxidizable matter; the quantity of oxidant consumed is expressed in terms of its oxygen equivalence.

Tools needed:
For this test we need: - Several beakers for keeping the chemical solutions - Cylinders - Titration flask - Burette - Pipettes - Dropper - Oven

Procedure:
In order to perform this test, a 10ml of the water sample should be provided (for our experiment, we used tap water). 0.2 g of HgSO 4 should be first added. Then 10ml of a solution of H2SO4 and Ag2SO4 should be added. We then add 5 ml of the strong oxidizing agent (K2Cr2O7), and finally we add 5 ml of a solution of H2SO4 and Ag2SO4 again. The last solution is added through two steps to help prevent the tube were working with from getting damaged. At the end, the samples volume would be around 30 ml, in general for this test, the ratio of the water sample to the whole chemical solution should be (1:2) The sample should then be heated for 2 hours at the temperature of 150 C. The resultant solution should be poured into a flask. 0.1ml of Ferrous Ammonium Sulfate (FAS) solution and Ferroin, which acts as an indicator and has a normality value of 0.1, should be added. Finally, a titration of the remnants of the strong oxidizing agent (Cr 3+) should be

performed. The color of the solution before titration should be orange, and after the titration it should turn into reddish-brown color. In order to be able to make use of our results, we should have a blank sample as an indicator, in which all the chemicals are added except for the water sample. The volume of the titrant used for the blank sample would be given the amount of A, and the volume of titrant used for our water sample would be the amount B; thus the amount of the oxidizing agent consumed by the pollutants in the sample would be: A B. The COD is calculated by: {[(A-B) * N * 8ooo] / Volume of the water sample} * Dilution factor. * N is the normality of the FAS solution.

Notes:
* If the sample turned green after it was heated or when all the chemicals were added, then there would be no need for titration, since the whole oxidizing agent would be consumed * We add Hg, to make it react with Cl, which, if present in the solution, would react with the oxidizing agent, and giving false results about our water sample: Cl reacting with the oxidizing agent: Cl + Cr2O7 + H Cl2 + Cr + H2O So, to prevent the Cl from using up all the oxidizing agent, the Hg reacts with the CL: 2Cl + Hg HgCl2

Results:
The following volumes of titrant were obtained for the blank and water sample: Blank sample: 22ml of titrant were used Water sample: 18ml of titrant were used with the dilution factor of 1:5

Calculations:
The amount of COD present in our water sample would be: COD = [(A-B) * N * 8ooo] / Volume of the water sample. COD = {[(22 18) * 0.1 * 8000] / 10} * (1/5) COD =64 mg/L

Discussion and Conclusion:


Any water sample which has a COD value of less than 400 mg/L is considered to be weak in terms of the samples oxygen demand, indicating that the amount of pollutants is low. Since we used tap water for this lab (which is supposed to be drinking water) the result

we obtained is very reasonable, and ensures us that the water is safe to be used.

References:
http://www.hannainst.com.au/Pro/what_is_cod.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_oxygen_demand

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