CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

This work deals with the calculation of the uncertainty of the exogenous respiration rate (Rex) and the total oxygen consumed (OCT) derived from a single open respirometric profile. Uncertainties were evaluated applying a linear error propagation method. Results show that standard deviations (SD) of Rex and OCT not only depend on the SD of the dissolved oxygen (sC) and kLa (skLa), but also on the SD of the derivative term (dC/dt) of the oxygen mass balance equation (sb). A Monte Carlo technique was employed to assess sb; a power law expression for the dependence of sb as a function of sC, the time window (tw) and the samplig rate (Dt) was proposed. Obtained equations in the present work are useful to calculate suitable conditions (e.g., biomass concentration, kLa) that minimize the coefficient of variation corresponding to Rex, and OCT.