Dependable information from the Chemical Enquiries Help Desk in 48 hours.  Each month library staff look at one of the many enquiries received and highlight selected resources, including the Virtual Library, that provide relevant answers.  

The enquiry this month 

• What is BOD and where can I find out more about water pollution and water treatment                

One of a number of Knovel full text e-books of relevance is The Water Encyclopaedia with a detailed entry on BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) including: 

What does it measure?; Units of measure; How does it work?; Quality control

An example of the Springer full text e-books in the subject area is Water Pollution with the section: 

Evaluation of Pesticides in Wastewaters. A Combined (Chemical and Biological) Analytical Approach which covers Sample treatment; Methods of Analysis; Clean up techniques

Referex has the Handbook of Water and Wastewater Treatment Technologies with sections such as 

Membrane Separation Technologies; Water Sterilization Technologies; Chemical Additives that Enhance Filtration

Environment Complete from EBSCO with full text e-articles can help you to stay up to date with journals covering this area:

Advanced Treatment Technologies for Recycling Industrial Wastewater 
Environmental Engineering & Management Journal, 2008, Vol. 7 Issue 1

Use of Barley for the Purification of Aquaculture Wastewater in a Hydroponics System 
American Journal of Environmental Sciences, 2008, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p89-102

Springer full text articles on the topic include:

Development and implementation of microbial sensors for efficient process control in wastewater treatment plants 
Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, Volume 31, Number 3 / April, 2008 

Hydrothermal liquefaction of plantation biomass with two kinds of wastewater from paper industry 
Journal of Materials Science, Volume 43, Number 7 / April, 2008 

As part of the services of the Chemical Enquiries Help Desk we can supplement the information above with references retrieved from Chemical Abstracts, Scopus, Web of Science.

Members can carry out their own high quality research from the Virtual Library simply by logging in to a resource with their membership number and password.