Addressing BOD₅ Limitations through Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Correlations: A Five Facility International Investigation

RDR13TOC-001

This research report presents site-specific correlations between the 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅) and total organic carbon (TOC) for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) representative of various flows, treatment technologies and watershed ecosystems.

Full-scale long-term wastewater quality data including BOD₅ and TOC for three City of Winnipeg WWTPs, the Town of Quispamsis WWTP, and the City of San Francisco Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) were provided for the operating period of 2011 and analyzed to determine if there was a statistically significant correlation between BOD₅ and TOC.  Although the focus of this study was the correlation between BOD₅ and TOC, for the Oceanside WPCP, the correlation between BOD₅ and COD was also reviewed. A summary of the treatment technology, sample preservation method used for the TOC analysis, and data analysis for each plant is presented.   

This report presents BOD₅ limitations and addresses the need for an alternative approach; presents current practices of using TOC analysis as an alternative to BOD₅; presents correlation data and analysis between BOD₅ and TOC for five facilities of various flows, treatment levels and climates; provides a comparative analysis and report summary;  and provides wastewater treatment plants with an implementation protocol for developing a site-specific BOD₅:TOC correlation study to allow a TOC limit to be substituted for a BOD₅ limit in permits.  

This TOC correlation study identifies long-term practices of utilizing TOC as a process control parameter-specifically to monitor the removal of organics in a wastewater treatment process and the utilization of carbon balances and demonstrates a statistically significant BOD₅:TOC correlation to allow a TOC limit to be substituted for a BOD₅ limit in permits.   

169 pages (main report ~40 pages, reference data ~129 pages)
6.6 MB

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Online Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analyzers for Industrial Wastewater: A Performance Evaluation

PER11TOC-IND

This test reports presents results of five online total organic carbon analyzers field-tested at an industrial wastewater treatment plant over a period of three months utilizing various technologies.  Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority (GCWDA), Bayport Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant in Pasadena, Texas sponsored and conducted this test.  The GCWDA Bayport facility treats approximately 30 mgd of industrial waste received from approximately 65 customers (primarily petrochemical). 

Field tests consisted of operating online TOC analyzers at the influent of the Bayport facility in which TOC concentrations can range from 490 to 1020 mg/L with an average of 870 mg/L.  GCWDA conducts approximately 102 TOC analyses in their laboratory per day at their Bayport treatment facility and use TOC measurements for process control and billing purposes.  GCWDA plans to use online TOC analyzers for process control, detecting influent slug loads from industries and to potentially use online TOC analyzers to detect and monitor volatiles of the incoming stream. 

Field tests were conducted for a period of 4 months and used laboratory conformance measurements once per day to compare with analyzer output to demonstrate the instrument's overall accuracy when subjected to many simultaneously changing parameters as experienced in real-time monitoring conditions.  Field test results can provide information regarding instrument design, operation and maintenance requirements which influence the performance of the instruments in field applications.

This field test report includes evaluations of the following online TOC analyzers listed by technologies:

 

High Temperature Combustion (HTC)

Liquid Analytical Resource (LAR) QuickTOC

 

High Temperature Catalytic/Combustion Oxidation (HTCO)

Endress+Hauser CA72TOC-B1A1B2

Shimadzu TOC-4110

 

Supercritical Water Oxidation (SCWO)

GE Analytical Instruments Sievers InnovOx OL

 

Two-Stage Advanced Oxidation (TSAO)

HACH BioTector B7000  

295 pages
20 MB

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