DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
INTRODUCTION OT ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY
(CEEB 221)
EXPERIMENT 3.6: DISSOLVED OXYGEN DO MEASUREMENT AND BOD5
SECTION

02

GROUP

04

LECTURER

MR. NAZIRUL MUBIN BIN ZAHARI

DATE OF EXPERIMENT

10th NOVEMBER 2016

DATE OF SUBMISSION

17th NOVEMBER 2016

GROUP MEMBERS

NO NAME
1
RASHIDAH BINTI UMAR
2
AIMAN ATIQAH BINTI HASBULLAH
3
NURUL SYAFIQAH AJRINA BT MOHD RAMLY
4
SAFWAN FATHY BIN ZAMREE
5
MOHD SAUFI BIN ALI
MARKING SCHEME:
LABORATORY REPORT (P09 Psychomotor level 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5)
Scale
1
2
3
4
a. Appearance,
formatting
and
grammar/spel
ling
b. Introduction
and objective
c. Procedure
d. Results: data,
figures,
graphs,
tables, etc.
e. Discussion
f. Conclusions
TOTAL

TABLE OF CONTENT

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STUDENT ID
CE097873
CE097983
CE098164
CE098168
CE097988

NO

ITEM DISCRIPTION

PAGE

1.

Cover Pages

2.

Table of Content

3.

Introduction

4.

Objective

5.

Apparatus

6.

Procedures

7.

Data, Result and Calculation

8.

Discussions

9.

Conclusion

10.

Appendix

11.

Reference

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INTRODUCTION
The vitality of a river can be measured by its dissolved oxygen DO concentration. A healthy
river has sufficient DO to sustain the ecosystem and allow the organic matter biodegrade
naturally. When the river is polluted, it is starve of DO and it turns septic or anoxic. DO
measurement is a routine test for a river. Currently, we can use DO meter to measure DO
concentration. Previously, the DO concentration only can be done in the lab using reagents
and is known as Winkler method. It uses the present DO to oxidize reagents. Titration is used
to measure the amount of oxidation occur.
The presence of DO in water is a function of water temperature, salinity and vapour pressure.
An advance DO meter has DO probe with temperature and pressure measurement unit. DO
probe only allows DO passes through it membrane by diffusion and traves to a digital
detector that relates the respond into DO reading. DO meters have many applications
including BOD test and aeration test. It can be incorporated into online monitor system. In
wastewater treatment system, it can be used as a tool to control aeration of aerator by
switching on/off the aerators based on the measured DO concentration.
Traditionally, the concentration of biodegradable organic matter is measured by a test known
as Biochemical Oxygen Demand or BOD test. In this test, microorganism uses the food and
prevailing DO to digest the food and produce more microorganism or biomass. When there is
presence of nitrifying bacteria, the consumption of DO is based on nitrate and not the
biodegradable matters. Hence, the presence of nitrogenous bacteria will skew the results.
The standard BOD test involves placing a small amount of sample into a standard BOD bottle
of capacity 300ml. then it is incubated for standard 5 days. Before incubation, the sample is
introduced unlimited amount of DO. This is to make sure the microorganism will not starve
of DO. Incubation is necessary as daylight may introduce DO in the bottle due to potential
photosynthesis. The key reactors in this process is microbes, hence we have to make sure that
the sample itself will have sufficient microbes. If the the sample is too clean, then a seed or
dirty water might be introduced. The BOD is to measure of oxygen deficit between initial DO
concentration and DO at the end of incubation.

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OBJECTIVE
To measure BODs of a sample

APPARATUS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

BOD bottle and lid

Pipettes
DO meter
Incubator
Aerator
1 little graduated cylinder.

PROCEDURES

1.
2.
3.
4.

Fill up a container with water and aerate it for a while

Pipette 10-15 ml of sample into a BOD bottle
Fill the BOD bottle with aerated water
Measure the DO and place it inside an incubator

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RESULTS
SAMPLE

Amount of Sample (ml)

15

15

DO initial (mg/l)

8.03

8.09

DO after 5 days (mg/l)

7.97

8.08

BOD5

1.20

0.20

CALCULATION
FOR SAMPLE A;
BOD5 = [ DO0 DO5] / [volume of sample /volume of bottle]
= [ 8.03 7.97] / [15/300]
= 0.06 / 0.05
= 1.2 mg/l

FOR SAMPLE B;
BOD5 = [ DO0 DO5] / [volume of sample /volume of bottle]
= [ 8.09 8.08] / [15/300]
= 0.01 / 0.05
= 0.2 mg/l

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DISCUSSION
BOD directly affects the amount of dissolved oxygen in rivers and streams. The rate of
oxygen consumption is affected by a number of variables: temperature, pH, the presence of
certain kinds of microorganisms, and the type of organic and inorganic material in the water.
From the results obtained, we can see that the value of dissolved oxygen in the sample A
reduced by 0.06 mg/l while in the sample B the reading of dissolved oxygen decrease by 0.01
mg/l. From the value biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) we know this sample only have a
little amount of microbes.
The smaller the value of BOD, the lesser the amount of microbes present in the water sample.
This is because microbes need oxygen for respiration process and lower amount of microbes
need lower amount of oxygen.
This water sample can be considered safe to be used as the source of water used in water
treatment process for domestic uses. A low amount microbes lead to lower amount of
chemicals used to kill them. As we already know chemical also dangerous to human system.

CONCLUSION
From the experiment we can conclude that the water sample contain low amount of microbes.
It can be determined from the value of the biochemical oxygen demand in the sample that
been stored in incubator for 5 days. The amount of dissolved oxygen reduced from the water
sample is the quantity of oxygen used by microbes during respiration process.

APPENDICES

Initial DO reading

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Sample after 5 days stored in incubator

REFERENCES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3545804
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemical_oxygen_demand
https://www.ysi.com/parameters/biochemical-oxygen-demand-bod
http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water_quality/quality1/1-bod-effects-on-waterquality.htm
6. Lab Manual for Introduction to Environmental Engineering Laboratory

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