Uncertainty of chemical oxygen demand determination in wastewater samples

 The measurement uncertainty of the result of chemical oxygen demand determination in wastewater was evaluated. The major sources of uncertainty of the result of measurement were identified as the purity of reagents, volumetric operations, gravimetric operations, bias, and the repeatability of the method. Identification and evaluation of uncertainty sources was followed by combined uncertainty calculations. The combined uncertainty was compared to the experimentally determined variation and good agreement was found, indicating that the major uncertainty sources had been identified. The results show that the major sources of uncertainty arose from repeatability at high concentration level and volumetric steps at low concentration level, thus revealing the target operations for reducing the measurement uncertainty of this determination. Received: 5 August 2002 Accepted: 5 November 2002 Acknowledgements This research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia (Project Z2–3530). Presented at CERMM-3, Central European Reference Materials and Measurements Conference: The function of reference materials in the measurement process, May 30–June 1, 2002, Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia Correspondence to A. Drolc