Performance of Oil Palm Frond Fiber as Filtration Material in Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment

Abstract

Over the years, oil palm waste management has always been a severe issue for the palm oil industry. The growing demand for palm oil contributes to the rapid raising of biomass waste and effluent discharge. This study aims to use oil palm frond fibre (OPF) as media filter material to treat wastewater generated by the palm oil mill itself; known as palm oil mill effluent (POME). POME contains high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and is highly acidic, which is very harmful to the environment if discharged directly to the watercourse without proper treatment. OPF fibre is selected due to its fascinating properties such as high cellulase content, readily available, biodegradable and non-toxic. Several arrays of experiments are conducted to assess the effectiveness of OPF in POME pollutants removal. The parameters to determine the performance of pollutant reduction of this study are COD, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), and pH. OPF filters are arranged in a different ratio, particle size and even paired with other filter media materials, such as activated carbon and sand to determine the best treatment result. Findings indicate that the OPF filter with a ratio of 4:3:3 fine, medium and coarse fibres yield the best results, which are 26.44% BOD removal, 55.21% COD removal, 98% TSS removal and pH of 5.77. The findings show that the OPF filter is significant in treating POME. OPF as filtration material could be a sustainable means in wastewater treatment since it is biodegradable and readily available in oil palm plantation as agricultural waste. The outcome of this study contributes to waste management and wastewater treatment. For future studies, OPF could be coupled with other treatment methods to achieve higher treatment performance to contribute to environmental sustainability.