It is difficult to measure the online values of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) due to the characteristics of nonlinear dynamics, large lag and uncertainty in wastewater treatment process. In this paper, based on the knowledge representation ability and learning capability, an improved T-S fuzzy neural network (TSFNN) is introduced to predict BOD values by the soft computing method. In this improved TSFNN, a K-means clustering is used to initialize the structure of TSFNN, including the number of fuzzy rules and parameters of membership function. For training TSFNN, a gradient descent method with the momentum item is used to adjust antecedent parameters and consequent parameters. This improved TSFNN is applied to predict the BOD values in effluent of the wastewater treatment process. The simulation results show that the TSFNN with K-means clustering algorithm can measure the BOD values accurately. The algorithm presents better approximation performance than some other methods. (C) 2014 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.