Pretreatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) using Moringa oleifera seeds as natural coagulant

Abstract

Moringa oleifera seeds, an environmental friendly and natural coagulant are reported for the pretreatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME). In coagulation–flocculation process, the M. oleifera seeds after oil extraction (MOAE) are an effective coagulant with the removal of 95% suspended solids and 52.2% reduction in the chemical oxygen demand (COD). The combination of MOAE with flocculant (NALCO 7751), the suspended solids removal increased to 99.3% and COD reduction was 52.5%. The coagulation–flocculation process at the temperature of 30 °C resulted in better suspended solids removal and COD reduction compared to the temperature of 40, 55 and 70 °C. The MOAE combined with flocculant (NALCO 7751) reduced the sludge volume index (SVI) to 210 mL/g with higher recovery of dry mass of sludge (87.25%) and water (50.3%).