BOD stands for:
\[
\text{Biochemical Oxygen Demand}.
\]
It represents the amount of dissolved oxygen required by microorganisms to decompose biodegradable organic matter present in water.
BOD is an important parameter in wastewater analysis.
It is used to measure the pollution strength of liquid waste or sewage.
A high BOD value means the liquid effluent contains a large amount of biodegradable organic matter.
Therefore, in chemical process industries, BOD is used for:
\[
\text{Characterisation of liquid effluents}.
\]
It is not used for solid waste, gaseous effluents, or boiler feed water characterization in this context.