UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL AND BIOENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

CHEMICAL LABORATORY 3

QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF WASTEWATER

FROM TAMAN JATI INDAH

AHMAD NAZRIN BIN AMRAN - 55220217085

KAMARUL HAZIZY BIN KAMARULZAMAN - 55213116069

MUHAMMAD NAJWAN BIN MUHAMMAD NAZRI - 55220116067

NUR FATIN NAJIHA BINTI AHMAD ROSLAN - 55220217150

STATEMENT

Indah Water Konsortium Berhad (IWKB) received a complaint from residents of Taman Jati
Indah that there was a wastewater leakage found at the treatment house located at Taman Jati
Indah, Alor Gajah. The situation was not complied with the standard mentioned in Malaysia
Environmental Quality Act 1974, (Sewage) Regulation 2009. Indah Water Konsortium Berhad
(IWKB) appointed your company as one of the committees to investigate this situation and
come out with the complete solution. You acted as a Research Engineer in your company, was
asked to prepare a full qualitative and quantitative report for your client, IWKB.

OBJECTIVES

1. To investigate whether waste water from a treatment house at Taman Jati Indah, Alor
Gajah are compliant to the Malaysia Environmental Quality Act 1974, (Sewage)
Regulation 2009.
2. To investigate the situation qualitatively.
3. To investigate the situation quantitatively.
THEORY

The Malaysia Environmental Quality Act 1974 is a regulation that have the main
purpose to prevent, eliminate, aspires pollution controls as well as improving the environment
and anything related thereto. By referring to this act, this study is aiming to determine the pH,
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Turbidity and the amount
of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) in the waste water acquired from a treatment house at Taman Jati
Indah, Alor Gajah, Melaka.

pH is a method of measuring the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+) in a water sample.

Upon measuring the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+), it is reliable to determine the strength
of the water sample towards acid properties, or towards alkaline properties or if the water
sampled is scaled at 7, the water sample are said to be neutral.

The pH scale ranges between 0 to 14. Any acid fully ionizing in water gives a pH of 0,
while any alkali or base fully ionizing in water gives a pH of 14. [1]

Neutral

Figure 1: The pH scale

Source: youtube.com
The pH value is expressed as:

1
𝑝𝐻 =
𝑙𝑜𝑔10 𝐶

Where C is the concentration of H+ ions. The pH value can be determined by using a pH meter.
A typical pH meter consists of special measuring probes that made up of a glass electrode and
a reference electrode, connected to an electronic meter that measures and displays the pH
reading.

Figure 2: a pH meter
Source: hannaist.com

The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) on the other hand indicates the amount of
oxygen consumed by the organic compounds and inorganic water which were oxidized in water
[2]. COD is a dependable method to find out the pollution degree of any water sample. As the
main inclusive index of water pollution, COD are an important element for the control of the
total content of pollution and wastewater management.

Nowadays, a method used to determine the COD in any standard laboratory is by using
potassium dichromate (KCr2O7). The water sample is left heated for 2 hours with sulphuric
acid and KCr2O7. Organic compounds that vulnerable to oxidize reacts with KCr2O7 and
reduces the dichromate ion (Cr2O72-) to green chromic ion (Cr3+). The COD reagent used in
this experiment also contains silver, that act as a catalyst, and mercury ions for breaking down
chlorides if any interferences occurs.
 Wastewater contains an avalanche of solids and dissolved impurities. In classifying the
level of these impurities, suspended solids are the term used to represent the particles in a water
sample. Practically, they are defined as particles large enough to be collected by the filter that
being used to separate them from the water sample. The most common pollutant in the world
are the solid impurities that is called the Total Suspended Solids (TSS). The calculation of TSS
are as follows:

𝑚𝑔
𝑚𝑔 (𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 − 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡)(𝑔) × 1000
𝑇𝑆𝑆 ( ) = 𝐿
𝐿 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 (𝐿)

Turbidity is an optical determination of water clarity [3]. Turbidity assessments are

often used as a reference to show the water quality based on the clarity and estimated total
suspended solids in water. When a turbid water placed in a transparent container is held up to
the light, a sight of cloudiness will appear. The turbidity of a water sample can be immediately
analysed by using a turbidity meter.

Figure 3: A Turbidity meter

Source: hannainst.com
 Another quantitative method to determine the pollution of a water sample is by
identifying the amount of Dissolved Oxygen (DO). Both aquatic plants and animals depends
on DO for survival [4]. DO values are conditional on water sample temperature, the rate of
photosynthesis of the aquatic plants, the water sample turbidity, the degree of turbulence and
the amount of oxygen used during the decay of organic matter. In this experiment, the DO
concentration value of the water samples is measured by inserting a probe from a DO meter
into the water samples.
EXPERIMENT 1: Determination of pH and Temperature

Material / Sample

- NIST buffer solution pH 4.0,7.0,10.0

- Wastewater Taman Jati Indah

Apparatus and Equipment

- pH meter
- Thermometer

Experimental Procedure

The probe will be calibrated before starting to run experiment. pH probe will be inserted into
sample, stir gently and wait until equilibrium between pH probe and sample established. Then,
temperature of the sample will be taken with a thermometer provided.

Data Collection

Readings pH value
1
2
3
Average

Readings Temperature value, oC

1
2
3
Average
EXPERIMENT 2: Determine the Turbidity

Apparatus and Equipment

- Turbidity meter

Material / Sample

- Wastewater from Taman Jati Indah

Experimental Procedure

The sample is agitated and waited until the air bubbles is disappeared. After that, the
sample is poured into cell and the turbidity is read directly from the instrument display.

Data Collection

Reading Turbidity (ntu)

1
2
3
Average
EXPERIMENT 3; Determine the Dissolve Oxygen Concentration

Material / Sample

- Wastewater from Taman Jati Indah

Apparatus and Equipment

- Dissolved oxygen probe

Experimental Procedure

The sample is poured into the beaker. The probe is inserted into the sample to the desired depth.
The probe is agitated in the sample to dislodge air bubbles from the sensing area of the probe
tip. Then, the sample is stirred vigorously. When sampling bodies of water, the cable is pulled
to move the probe up and down approximately 3-6 inches to create motion around the probe
tip. When the reading on the meter stabilizes, the value is recorded.

Data Collection

Reading Dissolve oxygen, mg/L

1
2
3
Average
EXPERIMENT 4: Determine the Chemical Oxygen Demand

Apparatus and Equipment

- COD reactor
- Test tube rack
- 5ml pipette
- Spectrophotometer

Material and Sample

- Low and high range reagent vial

- Wastewater from Taman Jati Indah

Experimental Procedure

The COD reactor will be set for “TIMER” and “150°C”. The sample will be prepared while
waiting for the COD reactor to warm up. 2 ml of sample will be added to a labelled digestion
vial by using pipette. The vial cap will be tightly closed and shake to mix the solutions. The
vial is placed into the COD reactor and timer dial will be turned to 120 minutes. Upon waiting,
2 ml of deionize water will be added to the digestion vial by using pipette. After 2 hours, the
vials need to be waited to cool off before proceeding to colorimetric determination. The
spectrophotometer is turned on by pressing ‘POWER” and the stored program number is
entered (430 low range / 435 high range). The cleaned blank sample vial will be inserted into
the cell holder. “ZERO” button is pressed and reading will be taken. The blank sample vial will
be taken out and the sample vial will now be inserted into the cell holder. “READ” button is
pressed and reading will be taken. The procedure is repeated and rerun the program for high
range vial (if needed).
Data collection

Vial Dilution Tube type Instrument COD Result Detection

Factor (DF) (High / Low) Reading (mg O2/l) Limit (mg
(mg/l) O2/l)
Blank
1
2

COD Result (mg O2/l) = (Instrument Reading) * DF

Dilution Factor = (ml sample + ml DI water) / ml sample

REFERENCES

[1] “Industrial Instrumentation and Control”, S.K. Singh Tata, McGraw Hill 3rd Edition, 2009.

[2] “Simultaneous Determination of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biological Oxygen
Demand (BOD5) in Wastewater by Near-Infrared Spectrometry”, Q.Yang, Z.Liu, J.Yang,
2009.

[3] “Turbidity In Water: Monitoring & Assessment” EPA, 2012.

[4] “Dissolved Oxygen: Aquatic life depends on it”, Water Action Volunteers, University of
Wisconsin-Extension, 2006.