Abstract
ABSTRACT The alkalinity measurement procedure proposed by Hill and Jenkins (1990) and the method recommended by Standard Methods (APHA, 1985) were compared using three operating anaerobic digesters treating liquid swine waste. The results of the comparison show great differences in the measured alkalinity. Based on correcting for the total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) level [i.e., calculating the true bicarbonate alkalinity (TBA)], the procedure of Standard Methods produced errors ranging from 30% for digester effluent to 566% for raw waste influent. The proposed method of Hill and Jenkins (1990) produced errors of from 1.6% to 54% for the same samples. It would therefore appear that volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration, if assumed negligible, can introduce measurement errors of five to six times using the Standard Methods procedure. This error is greatest where TVFA level exceeds by five times the TBA level and would occur frequently in raw waste samples. In biological effluent samples, where TBA is high compared to TVFA, the error encountered using the Standard Methods procedure was in the 30 to 40% range. The method proposed by Hill and Jenkins (1990) is a simple means of correcting a majority of this error...
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