Pretreatment Of Palm Oil Mill Effluent Research Articles

Pretreatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) for Spirulina cultivation

Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) is liquid waste produced from palm oil processing. The quantity of POME in Indonesia has increased from year by year. POME is not a toxic material, but it will be very dangerous if it is thrown directly without pre-processing, because it will harm the aquatic ecosystem due to its high content of COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand). POME has also a high content of nitrogen (N) and phosphor (P), which make POME can be used as medium for microalgae growth. Therefore, this research is aimed to study pretreatment and to utilize its nutrient content (N, P) for medium of spirulina growth. Pretreatment of POME research was conducted by using two stage of cultivation (Chlamydomonas and Chlorella) and dilution factor (0-4x). The result of this pretreatment was then used for Spirulina growth. Spirulina cultivation was conducted by nutrient addition and without nutrient addition. This research showed that the best performing variation of dilution rate to cultivate Spirulina is 4x dilution. It showed that 4x dilution could reduce COD content until 128.33 mg/L. Besides that, in 4x dilution, microalgae as Chlamydomonas, Chlorella, and Spirulina had the highest growth rate as compared to 2x dilution and without dilution. The best wild algae for pretreatment of POME is Chlorella. Because by using wild algae Chlorella, COD content could be reduced until 128.33 mg/L and achieve the lowest COD content compared with Chlamydomonas. For microalgae growth, addition of nutrient is better than without nutrient, because nutrient could enhance Spirulina photosynthesis.

Specific degradation of phenolic compounds from palm oil mill effluent using ozonation and its impact on methane fermentation

In this study, the inhibition to anaerobic digestion of phenolic compounds present in palm oil mill effluent (POME) was quantified in batch and continuous operations to assess their effects on methane fermentation. Caffeic acid (CAF), at its concentration in POME, was found to be the most effective inhibitor of the microbial community in hydrolysis, acidogenesis, and methanogenesis phases. To mitigate the toxicity of anaerobic digestion (AD), the pretreatment of POME with various ozone dosages (0.1 to 0.4 gO3/Lwastewater) was performed to determine the effectiveness of specific phenolic compounds destruction. The ozone pretreatment was able to significantly degrade these phenolic molecules and alter their profile in POME over the wide ranges of ozone dosage. Ozone dosage of 0.2 gO3/Lwastewater was optimal to cause the individual concentration to drop below the strong inhibitory levels. When POME was ozonized, the overall total phenolic compounds in the effluent were reduced by 75 % from 613 to 155 mg/L. The overall volumetric biogas yields correspondingly increased by 67 % from 0.3 to 0.5 L/Lreactor.d with the improved specific methane yield from 6.3 ± 0.2 to 9.3 ± 0.1 LCH4/m3. The results demonstrated that the inhibitory effects of phenolic compounds could significantly be detoxified by pretreatment with ozone to enhance anaerobic digestion performance.

Microalgae Cultivation in Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Treatment and Biofuel Production

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is the wastewater produced during the palm oil sterilization process, which contains substantial amounts of nutrients and phosphorous that are harmful to the environment. High BOD and COD of POME are as high as 100,000 mg/L, which endanger the environment. Effective pre-treatment of POME is required before disposal. As microalgae have the ability of biosorption on nutrients and phosphorous to perform photosynthesis, they can be utilized as a sustainable POME treatment operation, which contributes to effective biofuel production. Microalgae species C. pyrenoidosa has shown to achieve 68% lipid production along with 71% nutrient reduction in POME. In this study, a brief discussion about the impacts of POME that will affect the environment is presented. Additionally, the potential of microalgae in treating POME is evaluated along with its benefits. Furthermore, the condition of microalgae growth in the POME is also assessed to study the suitable condition for microalgae to be cultivated in. Moreover, experimental studies on characteristics and performance of microalgae are being evaluated for their feasibility. One of the profitable applications of POME treatment using microalgae is biofuel production, which will be discussed in this review. However, with the advantages brought from cultivating microalgae in POME, there are also some concerns, as microalgae will cause pollution if they are not handled well, as discussed in the last section of this paper.

Utilization of moringa oleifera and nanofiltration membrane to treat palm oil mill effluent (POME)

AbstractThe palm oil mill effluent imposes environmental issues because of natural and supplement substance. This waste has a significant amount of biological oxygen demand, total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, and turbidity. Moringa oleifera seeds′ performance analysis as natural coagulants during the pretreatment stage of palm oil mill effluent before it is filtered through commercial nanofiltration membrane is the focus of the current study. The untreated palm oil mill effluent has 2,410 mg/L biological oxygen demand, 3,900 mg/L chemical oxygen demand, 865 NTU turbidity, 41,900 mg/L total suspended solids, and 4.61 pH. The significant reduction occurred in the feed parameters viz., 91.7 % for biological oxygen demand, 83.0 % for chemical oxygen demand, 67.7 % for total dissolved solids, and 72.8 % for turbidity after the pretreatment; however, the pH increased to 4.88. Design expert® was used to design the experiments and optimize the palm oil mill effluent pretreatment process via a one‐factor experimental design. The optimized solution has a 0.994 desirability index. Finally, it was concluded that with ever‐tightening environmental standards, moringa oleifera could provide a cheap, green, and potential natural alternative to the existing coagulants employed to treat the palm oil mill effluent.

Synthesizing green Chitosan-magnetic composite particles for palm oil mill effluent (POME) pre-treatment: A comprehensive review

Biopolymer is the most promising product for the cost-effective substitution of chemical coagulants with biodegradable products with favorable mechanical characteristics. Chitosan is a high molecular weight and charging density naturally organic polyelectrolyte (biopolymer), which is obtained from chitin's deacetylation from the crustaceans shell. Due to the applicability of this polymer for treatment in the palm oil mill effluent (POME), a wide range of papers on chitosan-magnetic composite particle synthesis for POME pre-treatment have been written. Chitosan and magnetic particles are cross-links together to satisfy the needs of high adsorption, regeneration, fast separation, and cost-effective treatment of wastewater. This would best POME pre-treatment cost-effectively and sustainably. The use of biodegradable materials attracted the industry alongside the increasingly global trend of biopolymers with low toxicity and durability. As biodegradable materials became the focus of the material scientists, this type of product became more apparent. This paper aims to provide a complete description of synthesizing chitosan-magnetic composite particles for POME pre-treatment. The reviewed article discusses the main results during the last decade which are classified into four groups as chitosan as a coagulant, magnetic particles, synthesizing chitosan-magnetic composite particles and POME pre-treatment.

Pretreatment conditions of palm oil mill effluent (POME) for thermophilic biohydrogen production by mixed culture

The availability of fermentable sugars in POME is one of the critical factors that determine the fermentative biohydrogen production yield. This study was carried out to determine the pretreatment conditions viz., temperature, hydrolysis time and acid concentration that can yield the highest monomeric sugars, to be utilized for production of biohydrogen from POME by mixed culture dark fermentation. Two different acids were used, nitric acid and phosphoric acid in the pretreatment of POME. Batch fermentation was performed to determine the potential of pretreated POME as a substrate for the production of biohydrogen under the tested pretreatment conditions. Higher hydrogen yield was successfully achieved using pretreated POME as compared to raw POME by mixed culture. Maximum hydrogen production was 0.181 (mmol/L/h), which corresponded to the yield of 1.24 mol H2/mol glucose achieved at 0.8% (w/v) phosphoric acid with initial total reducing sugar concentration of 18.47 g/L. Hence, the results implied that POME pretreated with 0.8% (w/v) phosphoric acid is a potential substrate for efficient biohydrogen fermentation yield that is 97% higher than untreated POME. While POME pretreated with 1% (w/v) of nitric acid showed 65% improvement in biohydrogen yield as compared to untreated POME. Therefore, the results implied that both pretreatment methods of POME showed significant increase in the biohydrogen production.

Direct hydrolysis of palm oil mill effluent by xylanase enzyme to enhance biogas production using two-steps thermophilic fermentation under non-sterile condition

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is well known as the potential raw material for biogas production. However, the high hemicellulose and cellulose content (10–14% w/w in dry basis) of the palm fibre in POME are less accessible for biodegradable to sugars, therefore, limiting the carbon source for microorganisms for the biogas production. This study attempted to enhance the hydrolysis step of the biomass by enzymatic pretreatment of POME. The optimum temperature and hydrolysis time using the commercial xylanase (5 unit/mL) were at 50 °C for 12 h. Two-steps thermophilic process consisting of POME pretreatment by various concentrations of xylanase (5–20 unit/mL) under the optimum condition followed by biogas production at 60 °C for 45 days was carried out. In all cases, the substrate to inoculum volatile solids (VS) ratio and volume ratio were 1:1 and 4:1, respectively. The maximum biomethane (CH4) yield of 914 mL CH4/g VS was obtained from the fermentation of POME hydrolysed by 15 unit/mL of xylanase. However, it was not significantly different from those of the other three concentrations of xylanase (845, 870 and 851 mL CH4/g VS, respectively). They were about 2.5–3 folds higher than that of the control (POME without enzymatic hydrolysis) (297 mL CH4/g VS). Microbial community analysis revealed the presence of Clostridium sp. and Methanocaldococcus sp. as the dominant strains.

Removal of phenolic compounds from palm oil mill effluent by thermophilic Bacillus thermoleovorans strain A2 and their effect on anaerobic digestion

Anaerobic digestion is commonly used for the treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) due to its efficiency in removing high organic content with the production of renewable energy in the form of methane. The presence of phenolic compounds in the POME has inhibitory effects on anaerobic bacterial growth. The major POME phenolic compounds were identified as gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, caffeic acid, syringic acid, vanillic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid and phenol. In this study, to reduce their toxicity, pretreatment of POME with the thermophilic phenol-degrading bacteria, Bacillus thermoleovorans strain A2, was performed. The A2 strain was able to aerobically degrade the phenolic compounds over a wide range of temperatures and pH values but the optimum conditions were found at 60 °C and pH 7. The maximum efficiency of the removal of phenolic compounds was 61.1% with a degradation rate of 4.03 mg L−1 h−1. This aerobic pretreatment was able to partially degrade all the individual phenolic compounds but to different extents. Some of the remaining phenolic compounds were further reduced by the anaerobic process. The anaerobic digestion of the aerobically pretreated POME was able to produce a methane yield 1.7–10.8 times higher than that of untreated POME. The results show that the inhibitory effects of phenolic compounds can be detoxified by pretreatment with thermophilic bacteria.

Improvement of Mesophilic Biohydrogen Production from Palm Oil Mill Effluent Using Ozonation Process

Biological fermentative production of hydrogen from the ozonated palm oil mill effluent (POME) was conducted in batch reactors using an anaerobic sludge as a microbial seed. Fermentation was setup at pH 4.0-6.0, varying POME concentration range of 5,000-37,000mg L-1 under mesophilic condition (37°C). The results showed that pH 6.0 is an optimum pH and the maximum hydrogen yield of 28.3mL g-1 COD was obtained. Comparative results of hydrogen production from the raw POME versus the ozonated POME indicated that the ozone pretreatment of POME (mg COD: mg ozone = 102.8) elevated the biodegradability of the POME constituents and significantly enhanced yield and rate of the hydrogen production. Hydrogen production using ozonated POME concentration of 30,000mg L-1 displayed the maximum yield of 182.3mL g-1 COD, which is 49% higher than that from raw POME. Meanwhile the maximum production rate of 43.1mL h-1 was observed at COD concentration of 25,000mg L-1 ozonated POME. Maximum COD removal was 44% at COD concentration of 15,000mg L-1 ozonated POME. This work demonstrated ozonation of POME significant improved performance of hydrogen production.

Improvement of Biomethane Production Yield from Palm Oil Mill Effluent Using Ozonation Process

Biological methane production from the raw and the ozonated palm oil mill effluent (POME) were conducted in 0.5 L batch reactors using UASB mixed culture as a microbial seed. All measurements were conducted in duplicate and experimental conditions with varying POME concentrations in the range of 3,000 to 40,000 mg L-1, under mesophilic condition (37̊C) and pH 7.0. Comparative results of methane production from the raw POME versus the ozonated POME indicated that the ozone pretreatment of POME (mg COD: mg ozone = 102.78) elevated the biodegradability of the POME constituents and enhanced effectively the methane production yield and rate for most cases. The kinetic parameters data were fitted with modified Gompertz equation. The ozonated POME concentration of 15,000 mg L-1 gave the maximum methane production potential of 624.4 mL and yield of 273.8 mL g-1 COD. The concentrations of volatile fatty acids and ethanol were negligible at the highest methane production yield.

Pretreatment of palm oil mill effluent by electrocoagulation and coagulation.

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is wastewater generated from the palm oil milling process. It is regarded as a highly polluting wastewater as it has a high chemical oxygen demand (COD), and contains high levels of oil and suspended solids. Pretreatment of POME is desirable before a subsequent biological or other treatment. This paper reports a study of POME pretreatment by (1) electrocoagulation and (2) conventional coagulation with Al2(SO4)3. At an optimal condition with a current density of 20 A/m 2 for 5 min at 313 K and pH 5, the percentage of oil, COD, suspended solids, and total solids removal by electrocoagulation were 72%, 64%, 53%, and 43%, respectively. The electrical consumption under this condition was in the order of 0.10 kWh/m 3 . The addition of NaNO3 improved the electrocoagulation, and it may also be beneficial for a subsequent biological treatment. At high current densities and/or long electrocoagulation time, POME treatment produced bubbles, which decrease the efficiency of oil removal. This effect did not occur in conventional coagulation. However, chemical coagulation limits oil removal from POME due to the effect of pH. Overall, electrocoagulation should cause less environmental damage than conventional chemical coagulation by Al2(SO4)3 as it treats POME without the need to add sulphate ions.

Palm oil mill effluent pretreatment using Moringa oleifera seeds as an environmentally friendly coagulant: laboratory and pilot plant studies

AbstractThis research paper covers the suitability of the coagulation–flocculation process using Moringa oleifera seeds after oil extraction as a natural and environmentally friendly coagulant for palm oil mill effluent treatment. The performance of M. oleifera coagulant was studied along with the flocculant KP 9650 in removal of suspended solids, organic components and in increasing the floc size. The optimum values of the operating parameters obtained from the laboratory jar test were applied in a pilot‐scale treatment plant comprised of coagulation–flocculation and filtration processes. Pilot‐scale pretreatment resulted in 99.7% suspended solids removal, 71.5% COD reduction, 68.2% BOD reduction, 100% oil and grease removal and 91% TKN removal. In pilot plant pretreatment, the percentage recovery of water was 83.3%, and 99.7% sludge was recovered after dewatering in a filter press. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry

Effect of aeration and soil inoculum on the composition of palm oil mill effluent (POME)

Aerobic pretreatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) greatly reduces the C, NO 3N and NH 4N content of POME but increases the organic N and pH. Results obtained indicated that pretreatment of POME before land application would reduce the risk of waterway pollution from runoff. The aerobic pretreatment would also make more organic N available to plants. Application of pretreated POME, which was alkaline in nature, to acidic soil would be an added advantage. The changes in the composition of the POME occurred faster at 37°C than at 25°C or 4°C.