Highly Effective Cow Bone Based Biocomposite for the Sequestration of Organic Pollutant Parameter from Palm Oil Mill Effluent in a Fixed Bed Column Adsorption System.

Adeleke A Oyekanmi,Ashraf Y Elnaggar,Mohammed B Alshammari,Siti Hamidah Mohd Setapar,Mohamad Nasir Mohamad Ibrahim,Akil Ahmad,Marlia Mohd Hanafiah,Enas E Hussein,Mohd Arif Rosli,Nik Norsyahariati Nik Daud,Adeleke Teslim Oyediran

doi:10.3390/polym14010086

Abstract

The reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from palm oil mill effluent (POME) is very significant to ensure aquatic protection and the environment. Continuous adsorption of COD in a fixed bed column can be an effective treatment process for its reduction prior to discharge. Adsorption capacity of bone derived biocomposite synthesized from fresh cow bones, zeolite, and coconut shells for the reduction in the organic pollutant parameter was investigated in this study in a fixed bed column. The effect of influent flow rate (1.4, 2.0, and 2.6 mL/min) was determined at an influent pH 7. The optimum bed capacity on the fabricated composite of surface area of 251.9669 m2/g was obtained at 1.4 mL/min at breakthrough time of 5.15 h influent POME concentration. The experimental data were fitted to Thomas, Adams–Bohart, and Yoon–Nelson models fixed bed adsorption models. It was revealed that the results fitted well to the Adams Bohart model with a correlation coefficient of R2 > 0.96 at different influent concentration. Adsorption rate constant was observed to increase at lower flow rate influent concentration, resulting in longer empty bed contact time (EBCT) for the mass transfer zone of the column to reach the outlet of the effluent concentration. In general, the overall kinetics of adsorption indicated that the reduction in COD from POME using a bone-biocomposite was effective at the initial stage of adsorption. The pore diffusion model better described the breakthrough characteristics for COD reduction with high correlation coefficient. Shorter breakthrough time compared to EBCT before regeneration indicated that the bone composite was suitable and effective for the reduction in COD from POME using fixed bed column adsorption.

Highlights

The palm oil mill industry is the major agro-industrial sector in Malaysia
At the pH and Point Zero Charge (pHpzc), the surface of the composite was acidic, which indicated that the surface charge density decreased with an increase in the pH of the supernatant of the palm oil mill effluent (POME), indicating that the acid surface was attributed to the presence of the carboxylic group on the surface [43]
Since the adsorption of solutes of POME is more favourable on the acidic surface, it implies that the pollutants of POME can be effectively adsorbed onto the acidic sites of the composite since the acidic sites were negatively charged

Summary

Introduction

The palm oil mill industry is the major agro-industrial sector in Malaysia. During the processing of palm oil, the production of the primary products generates different types of waste such as empty fruit bunch, (EFB), oil palm shells (OPS), and palm oil mill effluent (POME) [1]. Chin et al [3] stated that the palm oil mill industry is the major contributor of industrial pollution in Malaysia. The POME produced increases sludge generation and moisture content enriched with organic matter. The high concentration of COD in POME is attributed to the high contents of organic matter and carotene pigment as well as other compounds such as polyphenol compounds, polyalcohol, tannin, and melanoid, which are generated from the fresh fruit bunches during the sterilization process [9,10,11]. COD is the major pollutant parameter in POME that affects aquatic respiration and the environment if not properly treated before discharge [5,12], This physicochemical parameter must be reduced to appreciable low concentration due to the hazardous effect to human, animals and the ecosystem. The deposition of POME must comply with the prevailing effluent discharge standard to ensure environmental sustainability

Methods

Results

Conclusion