ESTIMATION OF CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND(COD)

COD is defined as the amount of oxygen equivalents consumed in oxidizing

the organic compounds of samples by strong oxidizing agents such as dichromate
or permanganate. It is expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/L) that indicates the
mass of oxygen consumed per liter of solution. The higher the chemical oxygen
demand, the higher the amount of pollution in the water sample. COD is
considered one of the most important quality control parameters of an effluent in
wastewater treatment facility. COD values are used to monitor wastewaters before
(influent) and after (effluent) treatment, and, therefore, their reliability is important
to protect the environment and to guarantee the economical sustainability of the
treatment facility. COD measurements are commonly made on samples of
wastewater treatment facility or of natural waters contaminated by domestic and
industrial wastes. COD is measured as a standardized laboratory assay in which a
closed water sample is incubated with a strong chemical oxidant under specific
conditions of temperature and for a particular time. A commonly used oxidant in
COD assays is potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) which is used in combination with
boiling sulfuric acid (H2SO4 )

This test is widely used to determine:

a) Degree of pollution in water bodies and their self-purification capacity

b) Efficiency of treatment plants,

c) Pollution loads, and

d) Provides rough idea of Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) which can be used
to determine sample volume for BOD estimation.

The limitation of the test lies in its inability to differentiate between the
biologically oxidizable and biologically inert material and to find out the system
rate constant of aerobic biological stabilization. Most of the organic matters are
destroyed when boiled with a mixture of potassium dichromate and sulphuric acid
producing carbon dioxide and water. A sample is refluxed with a known amount of
potassium dichromate in sulphuric acid medium and the excess of dichromate is
titrated against ferrous ammonium sulphate. The amount of dichromate consumed
is proportional to the oxygen required to oxidize the oxidizable organic matter
The complete oxidation of organic compounds under such strong oxidizing
conditions produces carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). The COD for any
organic compound can be theoretically calculated from writing a balanced equation

Using glucose as an example: C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O

The theoretical COD of glucose can be calculated as :

COD = Grams of oxygen used

Grams of substrate used
= (6×32)
(6×12)+12+ (6×6)

= 192
180
= 1.067 g COD grams of substrate utilized
Glucose is converted to carbon dioxide and water by a stoichiometric amount of
oxygen (1.067 mg of oxygen per mg of glucose). In wastewater, if the
concentration of glucose concentration of biomass is calculated before and after
biological treatment, we can know how much oxygen was consumed during the
conversion of glucose to biomass and end products.