Evaluation of modifications to a physicochemical method for determination of readily biodegradable COD

Abstract

In the Mamais-Jenkins-Pitt method for determination of readily biodegradable COD (S S), 2 alternatives were proposed for the intermediate determination of soluble inert COD (S I). When a full-scale treatment plant exists, influent S I = effluent truly soluble COD. When there is no full-scale plant, then the truly soluble COD of the effluent of a 24 h fill-and-draw batch reactor treating the wastewater is taken as influent S I. In this study, both S I methods were statistically compared on 24 wastewater samples from 2 municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). While average S I obtained for the 2 methods was the same, individual samples usually had very different SI values. In fact, virtually no correlation was found between the 2 methods. Also, the S S values obtained using both SI alternatives were statistically compared. A good correlation was observed, in spite of the poor S I correlation – low, dispersed S I values did not seriously affect the correlation between both S S determinations.

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