A modified method to determine biomass concentration as COD in pure cultures and in activated sludge systems

A simple technique to determine biomass concentration as chemical oxygen demand (COD) was developed as an alternative to the standard volatile suspended solid (VSS) method. The proposed technique for biomass measurement as COD is based on the determination of the biomass COD (CODB) as the difference...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Contreras, Edgardo Martín, Bértola, Nora Cristina, Giannuzzi, Leda, Zaritzky, Noemí Elisabet
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2002
País:Argentina
Institución:Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Repositorio:SEDICI (UNLP)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/83419
Acceso en línea:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/83419
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Química
biomass
chemical oxygen demand
Descripción
Sumario:A simple technique to determine biomass concentration as chemical oxygen demand (COD) was developed as an alternative to the standard volatile suspended solid (VSS) method. The proposed technique for biomass measurement as COD is based on the determination of the biomass COD (CODB) as the difference between total COD (CODT) and the soluble COD (CODS) of the sample. The obtained results show that this technique was quicker and simpler than the traditional VSS method. The validity of the proposed methods was tested with pure cultures of a filamentous micro-organisms (Sphaerotilus natans), a floc-forming bacteria and activated sludges. The method was also used for estimating the conversion factor (fCV) from VSS to COD units. A modification of the standard VSS technique was also proposed using two membranes in the filtration device; this technique allowed the biomass determination in 1 μm size bacteria cultures that cannot be detected by the standard VSS method because cells are not retained by the 1.5 μm diameter pore glass-fibre filter.