Field application of a biofilm reactor based BOD prototype in Taihu Lake, China

A tubular biofilm reactor (BFR) based online biochemical oxygen demand prototype was applied in Taihu Lake, China. Municipal tap water was used instead of conventional phosphate buffer as blank solution to avoid phosphate pollution. The background organic compounds in municipal tap water were taken into account and they were validated to result in negative deviation to accuracy. The microbial endogenous respiration was experimentally validated to be sensitive to salt ionic strength, and municipal tap water as blank was thought to generate positive deviation to accuracy. The system was continuously operated over 2 months without man intervention, and the automated monitoring data agreed well with that of the conventional BOD5 methods. The BFR resisted the frequent measurements with samples of high turbidity, and the BOD monitoring data indicated the index of biodegradable organic compounds of Taihu Lake was accorded with the second class described in the environmental quality standard of surface water. Analyzed together with permanganate index on site, Taihu Lake was revealed to be of good capacity of self cleaning. Importantly, field application study of new BOD method made it more objective in evaluating its applicability, and could provide practical information and useful improvements in the process of commercializing.