A simple method for determination of volatile acid concentration with corrections for ionic strength

A relatively simple but accurate method to determine volatile acid concentration in aqueous solutions is presented. This new method extends a less accurate procedure previously proposed to account for ionic strength and combines several volatile acid concentrations into a composite value. Both procedures use all available titration data, instead of the customary single titration endpoint. The simplified procedure is implemented using common spreadsheets as a tool for data analysis. Analysis of titration data for solutions of known concentration and anaerobic digester supernatant spiked with acetic acid verified the new procedure's wide applicability.