Case study: Revolutionising biochemical oxygen demand measurements with Gas Endeavour® III

Our application scientists have been working on a new protocol to utilise our Gas Endeavour® III instrument for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) tests.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) testing is essential for evaluating organic pollution in wastewater. Traditional methods for conducting this test, such as the dilution method or manometric systems, are limited in their capacity for processing samples. That’s where Gas Endeavour III (GE III) comes in – the automated system presents a simplified solution to improve BOD testing.

Our scientists conducted BOD tests with a standard solution (GGA) and synthetic wastewater (OECD) to test the GE III. The GE III uses volumetric respirometry and measure oxygen flow that is triggered by decreased pressure due to carbon dioxide absorption. Our researchers found that the reported BODs generated with our system matched those of previous experiments. Furthermore, the results were highly reproducible.

“These results represents a novel, volumetric respirometry-based solution designed to simplify and improve BOD testing. They show that the Gas Endeavour produces results with a high level of accuracy.” said Dr. Gangjin Liu, Application Scientist at BPC Instruments.

Not only does the Gas Endeavour offer accurate results, its’ innovative technology means the process can be automated and conducted with a high throughput of simultaneous measurements.

“Using the GE III reduces your workload, improving efficiency overall.” adds Dr Liu.

This BOD test protocol, adapted from ASTM-5210-92, is useful in many applications, from research settings to municipal wastewater treatment. In future we hope the protocol can be utilised by our customers for their specific application needs.

See the full scientific results at our poster presentation at The 7th IWA International Conference on Ecotechnologies for Waste Water Treatment 2025, June 23-26 in Stockholm.

Interested in our protocol for BOD testing? Read our poster here.