1.

What is the purpose of using blank sample in the experiment?

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The main reason for using the blank sample is to control the volume of organic
material in the sample. COD was carried out to measure the oxygen demand of
organic compounds in a sample of water, and we have to ensure there were no
accidentally outside organic materials added to the sample to be measured. A blank
sample is created by adding the reagents to a volume of distilled water. Both water
and blank sample will be compared. The oxygen demand for the blank sample is
subtracted from the COD for the original sample to ensure the true measurement of
organic matter.

2.

What is the objective of COD test and what is the different between COD and
BOD test?
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The chemical oxygen demand (COD) is the amount of oxygen consumed to

completely chemically oxidize the organic water constituents to inorganic end
products. It was carrying out to determine the organic oxidize able matters content of
water samples. While, Biochemical Oxygen Demand is a common, environmental
procedure for determining the extent to which oxygen within a sample can support
microbial life.

While BOD describes the biological oxidation capacity of a wastewater, it is not a

measure of the total potential oxidation of the organic compounds present in the
wastewater. A number of chemical tests are used to measure this parameter, either in
terms of the oxygen required for virtually complete oxidation, or in terms of the
element carbon. Probably the most common test for estimating industrial wastewater
strength is the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) Test. This test essentially measures
the chemical oxidation of the wastewater by a strong oxidizing agent in an acid
solution. The value for the COD test is always greater than the BOD test and is not
always a good indication of BOD values for the same waste.

Because the COD test oxidizes both biologically degradable and unbiodegradable
organic materials, the energy available for biological action is usually overestimated.

However, this does not reduce the usefulness of the test. If it is assumed that the
fraction of organic material that is not oxidized in the COD test remains constant,
then any change in COD between two points in the process provides an assessment
(in terms of oxygen) of corresponding energy change. The change in COD then can
be used to establish the kinetics of energy conversion in the process, i.e., the energy
removal can be directly linked to the COD change. By contrast, BOD 5 values require
a correction factor to correspond the energy changes, because the test values do not
reflect the total oxygen demand.

3.

Why the CODs value needs to be monitor for the polluted surface water such as
in lakes and rivers as well as for waste water?

In environmental, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) test is commonly used to

indirectly measure the amount of organic compounds in water. Most applications of COD
determine the amount of organic pollutants found in surface water such as lakes and rivers,
making COD a useful measure of water quality. The amount of organic mater in the lake or river
will show the index of the water quality and we also can categorize whether the lake or river
extremely polluted or not.