Bioaccumulation Factor Calculator

BCF is an indicator of a chemical substance's tendency to accumulate in living organisms. It represents the ratio of the concentration of a substance in an organism to its concentration in the surrounding water medium.

BCF is calculated as the concentration of the substance in fish or organism tissue (mg/kg) divided by the concentration in water (mg/L). The resulting unit is L/kg.

Log Kow is the logarithm of the octanol-water partition coefficient, which indicates how a chemical distributes between water and organic phases. Higher Log Kow values typically correlate with higher bioaccumulation potential.

BCF values are unitless and generally range from 1 to 1,000,000. Values above 2,000 L/kg are considered high bioaccumulation potential, while values below 100 L/kg indicate low bioaccumulation.

BCF (Bioconcentration Factor) measures uptake from water only, BAF (Bioaccumulation Factor) includes all exposure routes including diet, and BMF (Biomagnification Factor) measures trophic transfer between predator and prey.

Kinetic rate constants (k1 for uptake, k2 for depuration) should be used when experimental data from bioaccumulation studies is available, providing a more mechanistic approach to BCF estimation.

Kow-based predictions provide reasonable estimates for hydrophobic organic chemicals but may be less accurate for ionizable compounds, very hydrophobic substances, or chemicals with specific transport mechanisms.