biological oxygen demand, is a test performed to measure the potential of wastewater and other waters to deplete the oxygen level of receiving waters.
a common, environmental procedure for determining the extent to which oxygen within a sample can support microbial life. The following tutorial explores the theory and basics of performing this test when one has little or no prior experience. This method is popular in many environmental laboratories analyzing waste water, compost, sludge, and soil samples. Although methods for each matrix are similar, this tutorial focuses on the method associated with only waste water effluents.