Simulating Biogas Production Process from Palm Oil Mill Effluent for Power Generation

Abstract

The rapid growth of the palm oil industry in Indonesia has made it the world's largest palm oil producer. However, this progress comes with a challenge as the industry generates Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME), which poses an environmental threat if directly discharged into the environment. POME contains high concentrations of organic compounds that can be harnessed to produce energy in biogas through anaerobic treatment processes. This study aims to develop an efficient POME biogas production technique for large-scale power generation. The biogas production process with a capacity of 675.38 Kg/batch, 51,9 tonnes/year, and economic evaluation were simulated using SuperPro Designer v13.0. Biogas production from POME involves a series of stages employing anaerobic microorganisms for organic material decomposition, including hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis. The simulation results indicate that the plant can produce biogas with a composition of 86.228% methane, 1.507% water, 0.059% hydrogen, 0.016% hydrogen sulfide, and 1.959% carbon dioxide within a batch time of 114 hours. The economic feasibility simulation resulted in a Net Present Value (NPV) of $553,000, Internal Return Rate (IRR) of 19.3%, and Payback Period (PBP) of 4.22 years. Those results confirm the viability of these projects.