Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment Research Articles

Pilot-Scale Investigation of the Integrated Anaerobic–Aerobic Bioreactor (IAAB) Treating Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME): Startup and Performance Evaluation

The treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) has always been the topic of research in Malaysia due to the high concentration of total suspended solid (TSS) and oil and grease (O&G) ranges from 28 846 to 30 920 mg/L and 5614 to 8812 mg/L, respectively. Additionally, the release of methane gas during the treatment of POME in all of the palm oil mills has been the major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) effect. The main aim of this work is to evaluate the performance of the pilot-plant integrated anaerobic–aerobic bioreactor (IAAB) for POME treatment at two different phases: (a) startup and (b) long-term performance evaluation from an organic loading rate (OLR) of 10.5 to 32.5 gCOD/(L·day). Startup of the pilot-plant IAAB was successfully accomplished in 24 days with overall removal efficiencies in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total suspended solid (TSS) of at least 90% at the OLR of 8.0 gCOD/(L·day). The pilot-plant IAAB achieved high BOD, COD, and TSS removal efficiencies of more than 99% for OLR up to 30.0 gCOD/(L·day) with methane yield ranges from 0.0406 LCH₄/gCODᵣₑₘₒᵥₑd to 0.1312 LCH₄/gCODᵣₑₘₒᵥₑd. The effluent quality remained stable with BOD of 16–107 mg/L with a high percent of compliance with the discharge limit of 100 mg/L. The coupling of the Grau second-order and Stover–Kincannon models (anaerobic system) with the Stover–Kincannon model (aerobic system) will completely define the pilot-plant IAAB system. This pilot-plant research will provide valuable data and experiences required to design and commission a full-scale IAAB.

Production of Bricks from Sludge of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME)

Malaysia has been recognized in recent decades as one of the world's leading palm oil producers and exporters. The number of palm oil mills multiplies each year, increasing the capacity of fresh fruit bunch waste or effluent discharged. Countless numbers of research and development, as well as implementation, have been dedicated to advancing the pollution control technologies. Most of the research is to treat and manage liquid and solid waste generated from palm oil mills. The main reason for such tremendous efforts is that the waste coming from palm oil mills has been declared as one of the pollution sources in the world. Thus, the purpose of this study was to utilize treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) sludge from the electrocoagulation process to produce bricks. Here, three different dilution rates, which was 60%, 90% and 100% of POME concentration have been analyzed in the electrocoagulation process, respectively. After the electrocoagulation process, the characteristics of POME effluents were evaluated, and the treated POME sludge was collected. Instead of being discarded after the treatment, the treated waste sludge from the electrocoagulation process was used to make bricks. Three different bricks labelled (A, B and C) from treated POME sludge from the electrocoagulation process (60%, 90% and 100%) were fabricated. These bricks have been analyzed based on the JKR Standard Specifications for Building Works. Data obtained showed that the compressive strength for the bricks (A, B and C) after seven days were 6.076, 8.233, and 6.344 N/mm2. Meanwhile, the bulk density of the bricks (A, B and C) were 2247.92, 2233.95, and 2094.33 kg/m3. The results showed that the compressive strength for these brick samples had met the JKR Standard Specification for Building Works of 5.2 N/mm2. It can be deduced that the bricks from treated POME can be a greener product compared to the traditional bricks. Moreover, the concept of a circular economy is adapted in this study to eliminate waste for a long-term sustainable environment.

Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment by Using Copperas as Physicochemical Treatment Agent

The palm oil mill industry in Malaysia are a huge agriculture industry which generates significant amount Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME). POME is an oily wastewater which consist of various suspended components, the liquid are a combination of steriliser condensate and cooling water. The wastewater is very pollutant to human and environment, the coagulants applied to reduce the suspended materials in POME as following the stringent requirements of biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solid (TDS), total solid (TS) and turbidity as stated by the Department of environment. This paper analyses the use of ferrous sulphate heptahydrate as a coagulant as it was applied on the primary treatment and the results improvement upon physicochemical treatment parameters. Series of batch treatment for coagulation and flocculation with ferrous sulphate heptahydrate were conducted. Dosage and pH were conducted to determine the optimum conditions to apply the coagulants. The result of coagulants showed that ferrous sulphate heptahydrate have a good effect on BOD reduction at dosage 1500 mg/l pH of 3.4 before pH adjustment. There were eight different samples used for different concentration of coagulant, the sample of 250 ppm copperas feed till 1000 ppm feed has the COD result difference of 171 ppm. When the copperas feed increased the COD value will decreased gradually. For the second parameter, biological oxygen demands the BOD value are reduced successfully, the first sample with feed concentration 500 ppm of copperas has BOD value of 288 ppm. As we increase the feed of copperas to 2000 ppm the BOD value reduced to 13 ppm. Next the highest value of TSS reduction is at 2000 ppm of copperas feed, at the specific dosage the TSS reading was 7502 ppm

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

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.

Palm Oil Mills Odour Emission Survey based on Different POME Treatment System

Odorous gaseous such as ammonia and hydrogen sulphide produced by anaerobic bacteria are emitted when palm oil mill effluent (POME) is treated via anaerobic digestion. The Department of Environment (DOE) under the jurisdiction of the Air Division has proposed an odour emission limit of 12,000OUm<sup>-3</sup> at source sample for Malaysian palm oil mills recently. The objective of this paper is to investigate the odour concentration at effluent treatment area within palm oil mills which practise different types of common POME treatment systems such as Open Ponds Treatment, Covered Lagoon and Digester Tank. The odour source grabbed samples from the respective treatment plants were assessed according to MS 1963:2007 Air Quality – determination of odour concentration by dynamic olfactometry. In addition in-situ odour concentration surrounding the respective project sites have been measured based on enhanced procedures adapted from VDI3940 Grid Method. The survey results showed that odour emitted from Open Ponds Treatment was having highest concentration while Digester Tank was having the lowest concentration due to quarantine factor. None of the observations comply the DOE proposal. Thus, alternative approaches need to be counter proposed in the legislation drafting so that the millers compliance could be ensured while avoid the public sensory annoyance complaints.

Cultivation and application of Scenedesmus sp. strain UKM9 in palm oil mill effluent treatment for enhanced nutrient removal

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) contains nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, and poses a threat to the environment especially if released untreated into water bodies. The phylum Chlorophyta contains microalgae from the genus Scenedesmus which are utilised as bioremediation agents. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of Scenedesmus sp. UKM9 to remove chemical oxygen demand (COD) and nutrients (NH4+ and PO43−) from anaerobic POME by considering photoperiods and pollutant loading rates as environmental parameters. The results showed that the removal of COD (57% removal) and NH4+ (100% removal) was the highest in a 12h:12h (light:dark) photoperiod and a pollutant loading rate of 61.67 mg L−1 day−1 COD. Removal of PO43− (91% removal) was highest in a 16h:8h (light:dark) photoperiod and a pollutant loading rate of 11.67 mg L−1 day−1 COD. The removal of COD, nitrogen and phosphate occurred via the actions of microalgae through assimilation, bacteria through oxidation and precipitation through the formation of calcium phosphate complexes. These findings suggest that Scenedesmus sp. strain UKM9 is a potential bioremediation agent for treating POME.

Comparative Assessment for Mechanical Vapour Recompression and Multi-effect Evaporation Technology in Palm Oil Mill Effluent Elimination

Due to the alarming methane emission from anaerobic palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment practices in palm oil mills, POME elimination strategy is considered as an alternative zero waste solution towards methane mitigation apart from biogas recovery. By dewatering the effluent, POME evaporation technology provides opportunities in water recycling, oil recovery, effluent elimination and process integration with downstream refinery. One of the challenges for implementing POME evaporation is the extensive thermal energy use, which threatens energy efficiency and carbon footprint of palm oil mill. Advanced technologies such as multi-effect evaporation (MEE) and mechanical vapour recompression (MVR) can be considered to reduce steam demand for POME evaporation. Recently, electrical-driven MVR evaporator emerges as a popular solution for solution concentration and food powder production. In MVR systems, evaporated vapour is recompressed by power-consuming mechanical energy to enable steam reuse and reduction in fresh steam demand. In this paper, MEE and MVR evaporation systems are considered for POME dewatering in the integrated palm-oil based complex (POBC) optimisation. A fuzzy multi-objective optimisation model was developed to evaluate the trade-offs of economic benefits, energy consumption and environmental impacts between thermal and electrical driven evaporation techniques for sustainable POBC design. MEE was selected in the fuzzy optimal POBC with aggregate satisfaction of four objectives and improved the EP and GHG reduction of baseline study by 12 % and 61 %. Single-effect MVR POME evaporator contributed to 64 % thermal cost savings with overall 1.5 % reduction in POBC profitability. The optimal results and electricity-to-steam (ETS) price analysis have provided critical insights into the feasibility of MEE and MVR evaporation in POMs. Reducing electricity tariff to achieve ETS ratio below 1.27 could increase the economic favourability of MVR-implemented POBC.

Electrochemical Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent using Graphite as Electrode Materials

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is one of the largest wastes produced by palm oil industries. The electrochemical process offers an alternative to treat POME with several advantages. Anodic oxidation as one of the mechanisms from the electrochemical process has high efficacy to oxidize the organic content. This oxidation ability depends on electrode materials. In this study, graphite was used as electrode materials. The effects of voltage, electrolysis time and electrolyte support was investigated. The results show the highest removal efficiency obtained were 71% of COD reduction and complete color removal at optimum condition. Using graphite as an electrode was found efficient compared to other traditional materials and capable to reduce time the POME treatment compared to conventional methods.

The Impact of Hydraulic Retention Time on the Biomethane Production from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) in Two-Stage Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Reactor

Indonesia is currently the most significant crude palm oil (CPO) producer in the world. In the production ofCPO, 0.7m3 of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) is emitted as the wastewater for every ton of fresh fruit bunches processed in the palm oil mill.With the increasing amount of CPO production, an effective POME treatment system is urgently required to prevent severe environmental damage. The high organic content in the POME is a potential substrate forbio-methane production. The biomethane production is carried out by two groups of microbes, i.e., acidogenic and methanogenic microbes. Each group of bacteria performs optimally at different optimum conditions. To optimize the biomethane production, POME was treated sequentially by separating the acidogenic and methanogenic microbes into two stages of anaerobic fluidized bed reactors (AFBR). The steps were optimized differently according to the favorable conditions of each group of bacteria. Although perfect separation cannot be achieved, this study showed that pH control could split the domination of the bacteria, i.e., the first stage (maintained at pH 4-5) was dominated by the acidogenic microbes and the second stage (kept neutral) was governed by methanogens. In addition to the pH control, natural zeolitewas added as microbial immobilization media in the AFBR to improve the performance of the microorganisms, especially in preventing microbial wash out at short hydraulic retention time (HRT). This study was focused on the understanding of the effect of HRT on the performance of steady-state continuous AFBR. The first stage as the acidogenic reactorwas rununder acidic conditions (pH 4-5) at five different HRTs. In comparison, the second stage as the methanogenic reactorwasrun under the neutral condition at four different HRTs. In this work,short HRT (5 days) resulted in better performance in both acidogenic AFBR and methanogenic AFBR. The immobilization media was hence essential to reduce the risk of washout at such a short HRT. The two-stage system also resulted in quite a high percentage of soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) removal, which was as much as 96.06%sCOD.

Adsorption of Contaminants from Palm Oil Mill Effluent Using Agricultural Biomass Wastes as Adsorbents

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) has become critical issue among the oil palm industries due to its high organic contents and other contaminants which results in dark colour, turbid and bad smell. POME that is not treated effectively will result in significant wastewater issues as it disposes to the environment. Adsorption is a promising technique to purify the wastewater and has a wide variety of potential adsorbents. It works by adhering the pollutants on the high porous of activated carbon. Therefore, activated carbon has been widely used due to the effectiveness to adsorb pollutants and easy to produce. Previous studies proved that adsorption using activated carbon has been an effective method for the treatment of POME. This paper presents the utilization of activated carbon from agricultural biomass wastes for POME treatment. The materials are renewable, low-cost and viable as precursors of the activated carbon. The adsorption efficiencies and mechanisms of the activated carbon are discussed and summarized for easy reference. Development of methods for synthesis may become great challenges in the future, as well as the regeneration of activated carbon.

POME Treatment Technology Using Biological and Physical Methods: A Review

Palm oil mills have been identified as one of the main sources of environmental pollution as they generate both solid (decanter cake) and liquid [palm oil mill effluent (pome)] wastes. It is vital for the palm oil industry to implement effective measures in order to mitigate its environmental impacts. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the biological oxygen demand (BOD), of the effluent daily analysed by the mill laboratory are important parameters related to the intensity of the environmental impacts on the wastewater. The organic content in the effluent contributes towards the BOD and its relevance lies in the oxygen content of the water courses (usually rivers) into which the effluent is discharged. At values in excess of 100 ppm in the effluent stream, the water source will face starvation of oxygen resulting in the destruction of their marine life. POME can be treated with algae or specific aquatic plants. Past researches were carried out on the potential of Chlamydomonas incerta, Pistia stratiotes, Ipomoea aquatica, Chrysopogon zizanioides and Eichhornia crassipes in combating environmental concerns. The result shows that Eichhornia crassipes is able to reduce COD, BOD, N and P by up to 50, 90, 88 and 64 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, palm oil mill effluent (POME) can be treated by composting, a physical method using the plant E. crassipes, which was found to be the most effective biological method for POME treatment because its effectiveness in reducing contaminants was higher than other aquatic plants and microalgae. This review discusses several potential methods that are accepted and observed in other related researches and how biological methods compare with physical method for POME treatment. Keywords: Palm oil mill effluent, aquatic plants, phytoremediation, biological method, physical method.

Optimization of Progressive Freezing for Residual Oil Recovery from a Palm Oil-Water Mixture (POME Model).

Oil and grease remain the dominant contaminants in the palm oil mill effluent (POME) despite the conventional treatment of POME. The removal of residual oil from palm oil–water mixture (POME model) using the progressive freezing process was investigated. An optimization technique called response surface methodology (RSM) with the design of rotatable central composite design was applied to figure out the optimum experimental variables generated by Design–Expert software (version 6.0.4. Stat-Ease, trial version). Besides, RSM also helps to investigate the interactive effects among the independent variables compared to one factor at a time. The variables involved are coolant temperature, XA (4–12 °C), freezing time, XB (20–60 min), and circulation flow, XC (200–600 rpm). The statistical analysis showed that a two-factor interaction model was developed using the obtained experimental data with a coefficient of determination (R2) value of 0.9582. From the RSM-generated model, the optimum conditions for extraction of oil from the POME model were a coolant temperature of 6 °C in 50 min freezing time with a circulation flowrate of 500 rpm. The validation of the model showed that the predicted oil yield and experimental oil yield were 92.56 and 93.20%, respectively.

Synergistic effect of ultrasonic and microwave pretreatment on improved biohydrogen generation from palm oil mill effluent

This study aims to investigate the effect of the ultrasonic, microwave, and combined ultrasonic-microwave pretreatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) sludge before fermentation to analyze hydrogen (H2) production and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency in batch fermentation. Experimental results showed that the pretreatment of sludge (ultrasonication, microwave, and ultrasonication-microwave pretreatment) had positively influence the H2 production and COD removal efficiency during fermentation as compared to control one (without any pretreatment). Combined ultrasonication-microwave pretreatment of POME sludge was shown to be more effective for increasing both H2 production and COD removal from POME with the highest cumulative H2 and COD removal efficiency of 4080 mL H2/L-POME and 75.56%, respectively. The improvement observed for cumulative H2 production and COD removal was 12.14% and 21.42%, respectively, compared to the control one. These observations concluded that the POME sludge pretreatment with ultrasonication-microwave irradiation could be an effective strategy for improved treatment of POME with simultaneous production of H2.

Investigation of struvite crystals formed in palm oil mill effluent anaerobic digester

The formation of struvite crystals or magnesium ammonium phosphate (MgNH4PO4) in palm oil mill effluent (POME) occurs as early as in the secondary stage of POME treatment system. Its growth continues in the subsequent tertiary treatment which reduces piping diameter, thus affecting POME treatment efficiency. Hypothesis. The beneficial use of the crystal is the motivation. This occurrence is rarely reported in scientific articles despite being a common problem faced by palm oil millers. The aim of this study is to characterize struvite crystals found in an anaerobic digester of a POME treatment facility in terms of their physical and chemical aspects. The compositions, morphology and properties of these crystals were determined via energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Solubility tests were carried out to establish solubility curve for struvite from POME. Finally, crystal growth experiment was done applying reaction crystallization method to demonstrate struvite precipitation from POME. Results showed that high phosphorous (P) (24.85 wt%) and magnesium (Mg) (21.33 wt%) content was found in the struvite sample. Elemental analysis detected carbon (C), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) below 4 wt%. The crystals analysed by XRD in this study were confirmed as struvite with 94.8% struvite mineral detected from its total volume. Having an orthorhombic crystal system, struvite crystals from POME recorded an average density of 1.701 g cm−3. Solubility curve of struvite from POME was established with maximum solubility of 275.6 mg L−1 at pH 3 and temperature 40 °C. Minimum solubility of 123.6 mg L−1 was recorded at pH 7 and temperature 25 °C. Crystal growth experiment utilizing POME as the source medium managed to achieve 67% reduction in phosphorous content. This study concluded that there is a potential of harnessing valuable nutrients from POME in the form of struvite. Struvite precipitation technology can be adapted in the management of POME in order to achieve maximum utilization of the nutrients that are still abundant in POME. At the same time maximization of nutrient extractions from POME will also reduce pollutants loading in the final discharge.

Moringa oleifera extract as green coagulant for POME Treatment: Preliminary studies and sludge evaluation

There is an increasing concern over the production of huge volume of toxic sludge from the usage of inorganic conventional coagulant (alum) specifically for the treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME). As such, there have been many research on greener coagulant in order to tackle the issue. In this study, Moringa oleifera extracted from salt (MOS) was utilised to evaluate its promising function as a coagulant. Turbidity, colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD) percentage reduction and sludge volume index (SVI) as a function of Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) dosage, volume of MOS, types of salt and salt concentration were measured. POME treated with MOS had turbidity, colour, COD removal and SVI up to 51%, 50%, 65% and 148 mL/g, respectively under the following optimum conditions: 3 wt% MOS, 60 mL/L of MOS, and MOS extracted with 0.5 M calcium chloride (CaCl2) salt. Notably, 78% of SVI was reduced in comparison to M. oleifera seed (without extraction) and 94% lesser when compared to alum. The current research demonstrated that MOS can be applied as an alternative to conventional coagulant for POME treatment.

Holistic process evaluation of non-conventional palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment technologies: A conceptual and comparative review

Thriving oil palm agroindustry comes at a price of voluminous waste generation, with palm oil mill effluent (POME) as the most cumbersome waste due to its liquid state, high strength, and great discharge volume. In view of incompetent conventional ponding treatment, a voluminous number of publications on non-conventional POME treatments is filed in the Scopus database, mainly working on alternative or polishing POME treatments. In dearth of such comprehensive review, all the non-conventional POME treatments are rigorously reviewed in a conceptual and comparative manner. Herein, non-conventional POME treatments are sorted into the five major routes, viz. biological (bioconversions – aerobic/anaerobic biodegradation), physical (flotation & membrane filtration), chemical (Fenton oxidation), physicochemical (photooxidation, steam reforming, coagulation-flocculation, adsorption, & ultrasonication), and bioelectrochemical (microbial fuel cell) pathways. For aforementioned treatments, the constraints, pros, and cons are qualitatively and quantitatively (with compiled performance data) detailed to indicate their process maturity. Authors recommended (i) bioconversions, adsorption, and steam reforming as primary treatments, (ii) flotation and ultrasonication as pretreatments, (iii) Fenton oxidation, photooxidation, and membrane filtration as polishing treatments, and (iv) microbial fuel cell and coagulation-flocculation as pretreatment or polishing treatment. Life cycle assessments are required to evaluate the environmental, economic, and energy aspects of each process.

Adoption of TiO2-photocatalysis for palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) and its practicality against traditional treatment in Malaysia

The technical feasibility of TiO2-photocatalysis towards palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment is well-proven in previous studies. As a continuity, current study evaluated the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) in a concise manner, subsequently discussed its practicality in palm oil industry of Malaysia. Indeed, TiO2-photocatalysis displays a promising technical feasibility in treating POME, but its wide application is economically-suppressed. It is positing that biological-based treatments (including the existing open-ponding system) are more likely to be employed as the major treating approach for POME over TiO2-photocatalysis. This is particularly true as biological-based treatments offer better performance index for concentrated POME with comparatively lower treatment cost and technicality needed. Furthermore, it is also prevailed with high biogas generability, therefore being irreplaceably benchmarked for POME treatment in Malaysia. Instead of replacing biological treatment entirely, the adoption of TiO2-photocatalysis as complementing tertiary treatment for biological-treated-POME is more practical, bestowed to its robust organic-mineralizing feature for low concentration POME. Such integrated system is expected to augment the POME degradation efficiency, hence effectively preserve the environment from POME pollution.

Molecular imprinted polymer for β-carotene for application in palm oil mill effluent treatment

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is one of the most significant pollutant in the form of wastewater. It could have negative effects on the environment include the emission of biogas and water pollution which comes from discharging the brownish tick POME to the water bodies if not properly managed. Discharge of dark brownish colored of POME directly into water bodies may affect the aquatic life as it will reduce sunlight penetration and suppress the photosynthetic activity. A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for removal of β-carotene from POME has been aimed to develope in this study. The preparation of β-carotene imprinted and non-imprinted polymer (NIP) involves polymerization of β-carotene (or without it) with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD), 9-vinylcarbazole (9VC), tolylene diisocyanate (TDI) and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as the monomer, co-monomer, cross-linker and solvent (porogen), respectively. Analysis from FTIR showed that MIP and NIP have similar characteristic peak with different peaks intensity, indicating the similarity in the backbone structure of polymerization. TGA result displayed high thermal stability with final decomposition at 320 °C for MIP-β-CD-9VC as compared to NIP-β-CD-9VC. The pH study shows that sorption of β-carotene increased with decreasing the pH of POME and the maximum sorption capacities achieved at pH 2 were 10 μg/g and 7 μg/g for MIP-β-CD-9VC and NIP-β-CD-9VC, respectively. The maximum sorption achieved by using 500 mg of MIP as the sorption of β-carotene increased with increasing the dosage of MIP. Kinetic model evaluation has been applied on this prepared materials. The sorption equilibrium data was well described by Freundlich model. The results indicated that the sorption of β-carotene on MIP follows a pseudo–second–order kinetic.

Water quality assessment and a study of current palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment by ponding system method

Palm oil is one of the main drivers of Malaysian economy that becomes major contributor to the Malaysian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the agriculture sector. The demand for palm oil-based product is expected to increase proportionally to the growing population, thus palm oil plantations have been growing rapidly to meet the global demand. Hence, to ensure sustainable management of palm oil production, avoid a significant effect to environmental pollution, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) have been established to minimize environmental issues related to the palm oil industry in Malaysia. This paper provides the physicochemical characteristics and treatment techniques currently available for treating palm oil mill effluent (POME) nowadays. In addition, the correspondence between biological oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solid (SS) of raw POME samples with the rainfall distribution pattern were also evaluated. The sampling took place at the cooling pond of a palm oil mill throughout 2019 and had been analyzed using water quality standard methods. The results indicated that the total monthly rainfall significantly influenced the concentration of BOD and SS parameters, of which in dry season (February) the highest BOD (36,200 mg/L) and lowest SS (10,522 mg/L) were recorded.

Box-Behnken-Design based optimization strategy for alkaline pretreatment of palm oil mill effluent for producing reducing sugar

Alkaline pretreatment is used as a substrate prior to subsequent biological processes for palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment. In the present study, Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) was used to recover reducing sugar from POME. Important process parameters, such as reaction time (min), reaction temperature (°C), and concentration (%) (w/v), were optimized using Box-Behnken Design in Response Surface Methodology (RSM). POME treated with NaOH yielded the reducing sugar of up to 3640.84 mg/L under the optimum conditions of 58.78 min, 77.06°C, and 2.58% (w/v) for reaction time, reaction temperature, and concentration of NaOH, respectively. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that the quadratic model for reducing sugar production had an R2 coefficient of 0.979. Conformity testing for optimum conditions proved the validity of the model, yielding reducing sugar at a 9.35% increase, relative to untreated POME. This study verified the importance of statistical tools such as RSM for enhanced reducing sugar production from the industrial waste stream (POME) and its usefulness and efficiency in energy conversion.