Abstract
A life cycle assessment of anaerobic-treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) was conducted to assess the environmental performance on two integrated treatment processes: the typical hollow fiber membrane ultrafiltration module coupled with adsorption and electro-oxidation as pretreatment. The analysis was undertaken using the ReCiPe 2016 method and SimaPro v9 software was employed using a ‘cradle-to-gate’ approach. The results showed that hollow fiber membrane from the adsorption integrated membrane impacted significantly at 42% to 99% across all impact categories for both processes. Overall, the electro-oxidation integrated membrane was discovered to have a lesser environmental impact, particularly on the ozone formation (human health) (HOFP) at 0.38 kg NOx-eq in comparison to the adsorption integrated membrane at 0.66 kg NOx-eq. The total characterization factor of the endpoint category for human health is 8.61 × 10−4 DALY (adsorption integrated membrane) and 8.45 × 10−4 DALY (electro-oxidation integrated membrane). As membrane treatment is closely linked to energy consumption, the environmental impact with different sources of energy was evaluated for both processes with the impacts decreasing in the following order: Grid > Biogas > Grid/Solar. Future research should concentrate on determining the overall ‘cradle-to-grave’ environmental impact of treating POME, as well as other scenarios involving membrane treatment energy utilization using LCA. This study can help decision-makers in identifying an environmentally sustainable POME treatment and management, especially in Malaysia.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilMalaysia has been one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of palm oil products
The waste formed during the processing of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) is known as palm oil mill effluent (POME), and it is the toughest waste to handle for mill operators [2]
Endpoint analysis may allow for more structured and informed weighting, in terms of scientific aggregation across categories in terms of common parameters [36]
Summary
Introduction published maps and institutional affilMalaysia has been one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of palm oil products. The number of palm oil mills is quickly expanding each year, increasing the capacity of fresh fruit bunch waste or effluent discharge. The waste formed during the processing of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) is known as palm oil mill effluent (POME), and it is the toughest waste to handle for mill operators [2]. This is because enormous amounts (in tons) are produced at a time. Wastewater from palm oil mills has a low pH as it contains organic acids with a high number of total solids, oil and grease and dissolved constituents such as protein, carbohydrate, nitrogenous compounds and lipids iations
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