SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1975
STP33351S

Performance of Portable Automatic Wastewater Composite Sample Collectors

Source

A summary of the reliability of eleven commercially available wastewater sample collectors is presented. Installation procedures are reported which resulted from about 90 000 h of operation with sampling equipment at municipal and industrial waste treatment facilities under summer and winter conditions.

Water chemistry data, primarily five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and nonfilterable solids (NFS), for time and flow-proportional samples collected concurrently by piston pump, peristaltic pump, vacuum, and pressure operated compositors were compared to results obtained with manual sampling techniques.

Variations in nonfilterable solids levels exceed 100 percent in some instances for composite samples collected at the same point and over the same time span by different models of commercially available compositor equipment. Variations in five-day biochemical oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand levels were also significant but ranged, generally, from 35 to 50 percent.

A proposal is presented for the development of a standardized test procedure for evaluation of sampler performance based on suspended solids recovery. Equipment features which the “ideal” sampler would incorporate are recommended.

Author Information

Keffer, WJ
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Kansas City, Kans.
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Details
Developed by Committee: D19
Pages: 2–18
DOI: 10.1520/STP33351S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-4662-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-0597-3