Respiration index detrmination: a comparative study of different methods

Three respirometric methods were tested using 18 organic matrices. Two methods were performed in the solid state condition using static (SRI) and dynamic approaches (DRI) while the third was performed in the liquid state (SOUR). The results obtained showed that all methods were able to describe biological stability and were well correlated. SOUR gave results that differed from DRI and SRI, which, in turn, showed good agreement. SOUR showed a good correlation with dissolved organic carbon, above all with the hydrophilic fraction, indicating that water media was responsible for the high availability of soluble organic material during initial hours of the test. The use of SOUR cumulative data (OD12 and OD20) reduced the effect of the soluble fraction on the measurement, thereby increasing the correlation coefficient with the solid state methods.