Industrial Food Waste Science Fair Projects

Name: Brittany
Grade Level 7th
Awards: Mid-Columbia Science Fair. Distinction for scientific thought. Women Geosientists,honorable mention. Washington State Science and Engineering Fair. 1st place.Discovery Channel Young Scientists Challenge.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of industrial food waste before and after treatment compared to the BOD of the Yakima River.

I became interested in this idea when I found out that some industrial companies had to own and manage their own wastewater plants. Then I started talking to an expert who told me about the importance of biochemical oxygen demand to our river and our food chain.

The information gained from this experiment could help the people who manage wastewater plants, whose water eventually ends up in rivers, to gain a better understanding of the BOD impact to the environment and organisms, like fish, which play a big part in the food chain.  

HYPOTHESIS

My first hypothesis was that the river water would have a lower biochemical oxygen demand than industrial food waste before treatment. 

My second hypothesis was that the river water would have a higher biochemical oxygen demand than industrial food waste after treatment.

I based my hypothesis on an interview with Carol Hyatt, Tree Top’s wastewater plant manager.  She said, “River water is cleaner than most of our plant’s runoff.”  I think this is correct because river water is full of natural waste while industrial waste would be filled with man-made waste and chemicals.  After treatment nearly all the waste in the industrial runoff should be gone, if the system is well designed.

EXPERIMENT DESIGN

• The river sampled
• The place in the river where samples were taken
• The treatment plant sampled (Tree Top)
• The testing equipment
• Amount of sample taken
• Storage place (the tree top waste water plant incubator) 
• Type of container
• Processing procedures
• Temperature of the incubator (20°)
• Temperature when the pH was preformed
• Heat of the retractor

MATERIALS

PROCEDURES

1. Take a 1000 ml sample from river
2. Take a 1000 ml sample from Tree Top’s runoff
3. Take a 1000 ml sample from discharge valve (After treatment).
4. Test for pH. To do that:
     a. Adjust temperature of sample to room temperature.
     b. Adjust the standard to 7.
1. Rinse the probe with distilled water.
2. Use about 20 mLs of 7.0 buffer in a clean beaker
3. Switch in to “pH” position
4. Adjust pH to 7.0 standard
     a. Pour 20 mL of sample
     b. Immerse the probe in the 20 mL sample.
     c. Read pH directly off the scale. Allow 1-2 minutes of stabilization before         recording measurement.
5.Test for chemical oxygen demand (COD). To do that:
    a. Regulate 100 ml of sample for 30 seconds with a magnetic mixer.
    b. Turn on the COD Retractor, Preheat to 150°.
    c. Place the plastic shield in front of the Retractor to shield from heat.
    d. Remove cap of a COD Digestion Reagent vial for high range (0 to 1500 mg/L).
    e. Hold vial at a 45° angle. Use a 5 mL pipette to fill the vial with 2 mL of sample.
    f. Put cap on vial and rinse outside of vial with distilled water then dry with a towel.
    g. Invert gently several times mixing the contents.
    h. Prepare a blank by repeating steps d to g.
    i. Heat vials for 2 hours in the COD Retractor.
    j. Turn off retractor and wait 20+ minutes until vials are cool to at least 120° C.
    k. Invert vials while still remotely warm; put on rack until they reach room temp.
    l. Then choose calorimeter method (0-1500 mg/L COD) on the colorimeter.
   m. Place the vial from the rack (be sure that they have reached room temperature) and place them in the colorimeter.
   n. Place black lid over the sample to block out other light and color.
   o. Wait 2 minutes for color to be read.
   p. Record data
6. Tests for BOD. To do this:
    a. Set up BOD bottles. Use the results from COD to calculate dilution for BOD. Dilution is with chemical grade distilled water.
    b. Use dilution water to finish filling the 19 BOD bottles. Check sample pH       prior to test, pH must be between 6.5-8.5.
    c. Run DO test
    d. Incubate for five days at 20°C.
    e.  Run DO test after five days.
    f. Calculate and record BOD.
7. Clean up lab

RESULTS

The original purpose of this experiment was to determine the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of industrial food waste before and after treatment compared to the BOD of the Yakima River.

The results of the experiment were that River water had the lowest BOD at an average of 1.93 mg/L, the waste before treatment had the highest BOD with an average of 1679.59 mg/L, and the treated wastewater was in the middle with almost a 10th of the BOD as before treatment. The pHs were about the same. The highest average chemical oxygen demand was 2767 mg/L that was before treatment and again the lowest COD was the river water at 5.75 mg/L. The river had cleaner water than the wastewater before and after treatment.

CONCLUSION

Industrial food waste science fair projects begins at biochemical oxygen demand of food waste scifair projects