Abstract
The current ponding system applied for palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment often struggle to comply with the POME discharge limit, thus it has become a major environmental concern. Batch adsorption study was conducted for reducing the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Color of pre-treated POME using coconut shell-based activated carbon (CS-AC). The CS-AC showed BET surface area of 744.118 m2/g, with pore volume of 04359cm3/g. The adsorption uptake was studied at various contact time and POME initial concentration. The CS-AC exhibited good ability with average percentage removal of 70% for COD, TSS and Color. The adsorption uptake increased over time and attained equilibrium in 30 hours. The equilibrium data were analyzed using the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm models. Based on the coefficient regression and sum of squared errors, the Langmuir isotherm described the adsorption of COD satisfactorily, while best described the TSS and Color adsorption; giving the highest adsorption capacity of 10.215 mg/g, 1.435 mg/g, and 63.291 PtCo/g respectively. The CS-AC was shown to be a promising adsorbent for treating POME and was able to comply with the Environmental Quality Act (EQA) discharge limit. The outcome of treated effluent using CS-AC was shown to be cleaner than the industrial biologically treated effluent, achieved within shorter treatment time
Highlights
The vast development of palm oil industry has led Malaysia to become the largest palm oil exporter to more than 100 countries [1]
From the batch adsorption studies, about 70% removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Color was achieved from palm oil mill effluent (POME) using coconut shell-based activated carbon (CS-activated carbon (AC))
This result was comparable with a study using palm kernel shell AC (PKS-AC) for POME pre-treatment which showed similar percentage removal about 70%
Summary
The vast development of palm oil industry has led Malaysia to become the largest palm oil exporter to more than 100 countries [1]. This increases the waste discharged, i.e. partly treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) into waterways. According to Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), as of December 2012, there were 429 palm oil mills nationwide; generating an average of 0.65 m3 POME from every processed ton of oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB). POME is the result from processing of FFB mainly from physical processes such as sterilization, clarification and separation process of palm oil. POME contains various types of organic compounds which are mainly pigments extracted from sterilization of FFB, such as anthocyanin and carotene pigment [5]
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