It sounds impossible but I found an article showing that the TS/VS value is somewhere around 0 point something. Can you help?
No, it is not possible, as total solids are the sum of volatile and fixed solids.
Hello Aqil - it is not possible. Perhaps there is a measurement error? There is quite a bit of error in TS and VS measurements particularly in relation to biomass samples (e.g. activated sludge) and sometimes due to this VS > TS (as both can have a margin of error). However this is a measurement issue and if VS >> TS then it is likely one or both measurements are incorrect.
Since TS = VS + NVS (non-volatile solids), even in the case if NVS = 0 TS=VS (NVS < 0 is a non-sense!!!)
Maybe it is just a printing error and it was intended to be "VS/TS"??? This is the usual way to quantifiy the organic content of solids, not the other way round. Otherwise, I think the authors would not have published a number that obviously does not make sense.
Perhaps the mistake was in the glass fiber filter. Sometimes, when you burn the filter at 550 C the weight is lower than the initial weight, since you could have lost some fibers during the first filtering process. When you have low VSS quantity, I strongly recommend to clean the fibers by filtering with UPwater, burning and drying. Otherwise, you could have these kind of usual experimental mistakes.
In which article did you find that value?
Maybe is an error and they wanted to write VS/TS
I agree with Daniel Puyol. I have had this kind of errors, especially with waters with low solids concentrations, after the burning the filter weight is almost the initial weight.
Also, if the initial filter has humidity, then its possible to achieve a lower weight for the filter after burning.
It is not possible. Please let the researcher check his/her analyses as well as his/her methodology
No. Total solids is the sum of the volatile suspended solids plus the non-volatile suspended solid plus the dissolved solids (not just TS = VS + NVS, but TS = VSS + NVSS +TDS). This is a misprint or a lab error.
Es imposible dado que tendríamos una reacción biológica que tiene un rendimiento celular mayor a 1. Además de que no se consideran los sólidos disueltos, suspendidos y sedimentables.
It is not possible. You must control very well the weight of the paper ( was it si enough dry ? ) and the accurancy of the weighing
I agree with Muhammad Al-Malack answer. "Can not be. It must be a typing mistake since TS = VS + NVS."
not possible. VS is part of TS, so VS value should be less than TS value
AS Alain Poirel answers, maybe they got wrong not the analysis but the typing. That value should be VS/TS < 1
Not possible and if this happened will be attributed to error in doing the analysis
Hi Everyone, thank you for your responses.
Please find the link of the paper which I was talking about.
Main paper title: Methane generation from anaerobic digesters; Considering different substrates. By Rebekkah Nelson.
Link: http://home.eng.iastate.edu/~tge/ce421-521/05nelson.pdf
Reference: Mollera et al (2004). Methane productivity of manure, straw and solid fractions of manure. Biomass and Bioenergy, 26,485
Sorry, if it's somehow caused by my misunderstanding on the paper.
Aqil there is an error in the data transcription. Mollera paper does not give information about TS, but DM (Dry Matter), in g/L. Also, VS is given as g/kg DM, so the data in the document you attached is incorrect (I mean Table 3). Additionally, Ref Griffin et al. 1997 does not exist. Could be Griffin et al. 1998? If so, the information extracted from there is also incorrect.
Not possible at all. May be due to instrumental or human error.
Not possible. A weigth error can be occured. These results generally occured considering TS = VS + NVS where NVS arround zero. In this case you need using more sample to correct the instrumental error.
Under certain conditions you will measure higher VS than TS, due to the error in the measurement methods. Assuming that the difference is small this does not invalidate the data; rather, it is an indication of the relative imprecision in the measurement technique. If the difference is large (say, VS > TS *1.1) then you need to carefully evaluate your data.
Once the same problem arised when we were conducting some lab experiments, but later we found, it was a mistake, as the china crucible used for the measurements was accidentally replaced by another one which happened to be a heavier one than the actual.
Maybe just a typo? TS/VS instead of VS/TS
Anyway, not possible in my opinion, too.
As all agree, it is not possible.
total solid = volatile solid + suspended solid.
-> TS>=VS
You can check the attached literature for correct calculations.
Best Regards,
Selim
I run these calculations on a daily, with Heap and Sludge samples. TS% is always higher than VS%.
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