Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment Process Evaluation and Fate of Priority Components in an Open and Closed Digestion System

Anwar Ahmad,Mohd. Krimly

doi:10.12944/cwe.9.2.12

Abstract

The evaluation for the degradability of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biogas contents before and after closed tank reactor (CR) and open tank reactor (TP) were observed. COD reduction in the TP (maximum degradability rate of 60%) and CR (maximum degradability rate of 85%). The variation in CH4, volatile fatty acid (VFA) and total suspended (TSS) contents in the effluent was more pronounced in the first six months and found stable afterward. The maximum organic loading rate (OLR) of 11.5 g-COD l/d attained corresponded to 85% overall COD removal. However, there is study to degradability of COD and quantify the actual CH 4 recover from the commercial scale wastewater treatment from TP and CR. The findings indicated that the CH 4 content was between 49% TP which was lower than the value of 57% reported in TP. The lower VFAs were found in the CR because of variation of palm oil mill effluent quality and quantity from palm oil mill industry.

Highlights

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a viscous brown liquid with fine suspended solids at pH between 4 and 51 and a highly polluting wastewater that directly and indirectly contaminates the environment[2]
The maximum degradability rate of chemical oxygen demand (COD) 59.9% was faster and COD removal was found to be 85.5% by closed tank reactor (CR), whereas that in the Total phosphorus (TP) was only 70%, which was varying and higher than those of primary treatment where COD removal is approximately 53% Table 3. These trends were observed throughout the study period of 12 months, indicating that these COD originated from the same respective sources
The reduction of COD contents was in the following increasing order: CH4

Summary

Introduction

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a viscous brown liquid with fine suspended solids at pH between 4 and 51 and a highly polluting wastewater that directly and indirectly contaminates the environment[2]. The chemical properties of POME vary widely throughout the year because of mill operations and seasonal cropping[3]. Atmospheric methane concentrations incredibly increased by 30% in the last 25 years[4]. Net carbon emission from POME is approximately 1.4 × 106 tons per year[5]. Assuming a mean annual increase of 29% as experienced from 1990 to 20046, the estimated CH4 gas emission may be 0.502 × 106 tons in the year 2020. Certified emission reduction (CER) can be obtained by using methane gas as a renewable energy[7]

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Conclusion