Semiautomated Determination of COD in Environmental Water Samples

A new method based on the principle of flow injection analysis is presented for the semiautomated determination of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in environmental water samples. The method is rapid and continuous, and suitable for the monitoring of COD in wastewaters. The apparatus used was simply constructed by parts commercially available for high performance liquid chromatography. Teflon tubing heated with a boiling water was used as a reactor and simultaneously used for mixing coils and transmission lines. The operating conditions were examined to apply the determination of COD in wastewaters by using glucose as a standard COD substance. The procedures recommended are as follows: Both 4.9x10(-4) M potassium permanganate and 6.7 % sulfuric acid solutions are individually pumped, 20 μl of a sample solution is injected into the flow of the sulfuric acid solution, and then mixed with a mixing joint. The mixed solution is transported to a flow cell situated in a spectrophotometer fixed at a wavelength of 525 nm, and decrements of absorbance are recorded. The peaks were reproducibly obtained at a concentration range of 10 - 200 mg-COD 1(-1). Chloride up to 1000 mg 1(-1) was not interfered at all. Various wastewater samples were analyzed by the proposed method at a sampling rate of 30 samples per hour, and the apparent COD values obtained were compared with the manual COD ones obtained by JIS method

Seismic exploration at Fuji volcano with active sources : The outline of the experiment and the arrival time data

Fuji volcano (altitude 3,776m) is the largest basaltic stratovolcano in Japan. In late August and early September 2003, seismic exploration was conducted around Fuji volcano by the detonation of 500 kg charges of dynamite to investigate the seismic structure of that area. Seismographs with an eigenfrequency of 2 Hz were used for observation, positioned along a WSW-ENE line passing through the summit of the mountain. A total of 469 seismic stations were installed at intervals of 250-500 m. The data were stored in memory on-site using data loggers. The sampling interval was 4 ms. Charges were detonated at 5 points, one at each end of the observation line and 3 along its length. The first arrival times and the later-phase arrival times at each station for each detonation were recorded as data. P-wave velocities in the surface layer were estimated from the travel time curves near the explosion points, with results of 2.5 km/s obtained for the vicinity of Fuji volcano and 4.0 km5/s elsewhere