• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.212-221
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• 2020

This work discusses the palm oil mill processing carried out at Jugra Palm Oil Mill Sdn Bhd, situated at Selangor, Malaysia with the capacity of 45-t fresh fruit bunch (FFB)/h. Typically, oil palm residues and palm oil mill effluent (POME) from FFB are generated while processing. Prior to discharge, POME should be treated to remove pollutants in the effluent. As such, the performances of anaerobic and aerobic ponds were assessed in this study to determine temperature, pH, biological oxygen demand (BOD), sludge volume index (SVI), and dissolved oxygen (DO). From the experiments, mesophilic temperature due to better process stability was applied in anaerobic ponds. The pH results displayed a fluctuating trend between lower control limit and upper control limit, and, the pH value increased from one pond to another. The final discharge BOD and SVI appeared to be lower than 100 mg/L and 10 mL/L indicating low degree of pollution and good settling ability for biomass/solid. DO was close to normal, mostly below 2 mg/L. The experimental outcomes revealed the effective treatability of POME in adherence to the standard regulation, which is the priority for environmental sustainability within this industry domain.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.971-979
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• 2011

Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) is the mixed organic wastewater generated from palm oil industry. In this study, kinetic analysis with treating POME in an anaerobic hybrid reactor (AHR) was performed. Therefore, the AHR was monitored for its performances with respect to the changes of COD concentrations and hydraulic retention time (HRT). Batch tests were performed to find out the substrate removal kinetics by granular sludge from POME. Modified Stover Kincannon, First-order, Monod, Grau second-order kinetic models were used to analyze the performance of reactor. The results from the batch test indicate that the substrate removal kinetics of granular sludge is corresponds to follow Monod's theory. However, Grau second-order model were the most appropriate models for the continuous test in the AHR. The second order kinetic constant, saturation value constant, maximum substrate removal rate, and first-order kinetic constant were 2.60/day, 41.905 g/L-day, 39.683 g/L-day, and 1.25/day respectively. And the most appropriate model was Grau second-order kinetic model comparing the model prediction values and measured COD concentrations of effluent, whereas modified Stover-Kincannon model showed the lowest correlation.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.141-148
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• 2015

The presence of phenols in treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) is an environmental concern due to their phytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity. In this study, phenol-degrading bacteria, Methylobacterium sp. NP3 and Acinetobacter sp. PK1 were immobilized on oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFBs) for removal of phenols in the treated POME. The bacterial exopolysaccharides (EPS) were responsible for cell adhesion to the EFBs during the immobilization process. These immobilized bacteria could effectively remove up to 5,000 mg/L phenol in a carbon free mineral medium (CFMM) with a greater degradation efficiency and rate than that with suspended bacteria. To increase the efficiency of the immobilized bacteria, three approaches, namely activation, acclimation, and combined activation and acclimation were applied. The most convenient and efficient strategy was found when the immobilized bacteria were activated in a CFMM containing phenol for 24 h before biotreatment of the treated POME. These activated immobilized bacteria were able to remove about 63.4% of 33 mg/L phenols in the treated POME, while non-activated and/or acclimated immobilized bacteria could degrade only 35.0%. The activated immobilized bacteria could be effectively reused for at least ten application cycles and stored for 4 weeks at $4^{\circ}C$ with the similar activities. In addition, the utilization of the abundant EFBs gives value-added to the palm oil mill wastes and is environmentally friendly thus making it is attractive for practical application.

• Journal of Korea Society of Waste Management
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.571-586
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• 2018

The Malaysian biogas upgrading technologies and policies were examined. In Malaysia, the regulation of palm oil mill effluent (POME) has been enforced to reduce the biochemical oxygen demand to 20 ppm and the biogas capture in the palm oil mills have been recently enforced for renewable energy. A huge amount of organic waste is produced from POME, and 80 million tons from palm oil trees, every year. Due to the renewable energy trends, the Malaysian government is modifying the use of biogases as fuels in favor of their conversion into compressed natural gas (CNG) and other chemicals; various green policies are being promoted because of many advantages of the organic substances. The Korean policies for biogas are a good model for exporting environmental plants after upgrading the digestion and purification technologies. Therefore, this article introduces the current status of POME and biogas production in Malaysia, it could encourage creating a new market for biomethane.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.417-425
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• 2017

Indonesia is known as the largest oil palm producer in the world. However, along with the production, it generates wastes and pollution that caused the environmental problem in surrounding areas. Previous researchers reported that the high palm oil mill effluent (POME) concentration inhibited microalgae growth. However, the inhibition factor was not clearly explained by using kinetic model. This study presents kinetic models of Botryococcus braunii (B. braunii) cultivated on POME wastewater under different turbidity condition. Results showed that the growth model of Zwietering was closely suitable with experimental results. It was found that B. braunii was able to consume organic carbon from the POME wastewater on the logarithmic model. A modified kinetic model of Monod Haldane described the influence of turbidity and chemical oxygen demand on the cultivation. Turbidity of POME medium inhibited the growth rate at KI 3.578 and KII 179.472 NTU, respectively. The Lipid (39.9%), and carbohydrate (41.03%) were found in the biomass that could be utilized as biofuel source.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.469-474
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• 2019

Fermentation of palm oil mill effluent (POME) produces biohydrogen in a mixture at a specific set condition. This research was conducted to purify the produced mixed biohydrogen via absorption and membrane techniques. Three different solvents, methyl ethanolamine (MEA), ammonia ($NH_3$) and potassium hydroxide (KOH) solutions, were used in absorption technique. The highest $H_2$ purity was found using 1M MEA solution with 5.0 ml/s feed mixed gas flow rate at 60 minutes absorption time. Meanwhile, the purified biohydrogen using a polysulfone membrane had the highest $H_2$ purity at 2~3 bar operating pressure. Upon testing with proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), the highest current and power produced at 100% $H_2$ were 1.66 A and 8.1 W, while the lowest were produced at 50/50 vol% $H_2/CO_2$ (0.32 A and 0.49 W). These results proved that both purification techniques have significant potential for $H_2$ purification efficiency.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.823-832
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• 2021

Mushroom cultivation along with the palm oil industry in Malaysia have contributed to large volumes of accumulated lignocellulosic residues that cause serious environmental pollution when these agroresidues are burned. In this study, we illustrated the utilization of lignocellulolytic enzymes from the spent mushroom substrate of Pleurotus pulmonarius for the hydrolysis of palm oil mill effluent (POME). The hydrolysate was used for the production of biohydrogen gas and enzyme assays were carried out to determine the productivities/activities of lignin peroxidase, laccase, xylanase, endoglucanase and β-glucosidase in spent mushroom substrate. Further, the enzyme cocktails were concentrated for the hydrolysis of POME. Central composite design of response surface methodology was performed to examine the effects of enzyme loading, incubation time and pH on the reducing sugar yield. Productivities of the enzymes for xylanase, laccase, endoglucanase, lignin peroxidase and β-glucosidase were 2.3, 4.1, 14.6, 214.1, and 915.4 U g^-1, respectively. A maximum of 3.75 g/lof reducing sugar was obtained under optimized conditions of 15 h incubation time with 10% enzyme loading (v/v) at a pH of 4.8, which was consistent with the predicted reducing sugar concentration (3.76 g/l). The biohydrogen cumulative volume (302.78 ml H₂.L^-1 POME) and 83.52% biohydrogen gas were recorded using batch fermentation which indicated that the enzymes of spent mushroom substrate can be utilized for hydrolysis of POME.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.127-136
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• 2019

Land application of treated palm oil mill effluent (TPOME) could be used as an alternative tertiary wastewater treatment process. However, phenolic compounds in TPOME might be leached to the environment. This study investigated the ability of grasses on reducing phenolic compounds in the leachate after TPOME application. Several pasture grasses in soil pots were compared after irrigating with TPOME from stabilization ponds, which contained 360-630 mg/L phenolic compounds. The number of soil bacteria in planted pots increased over time with the average of $10^8CFU/g$ for mature grasses, while only $10^4-10^6CFU/g$ were found in the unplanted control pots. The leachates from TPOME irrigated grass pots contained lower amounts of phenolic compounds and had lower phytotoxicity than that of control pots. The phenol removal efficiency of grass pots was ranged 67-93% and depended on grass cultivars, initial concentration of phenolic compounds and frequency of irrigations. When compared to water irrigation, TPOME led to an increased phenolic compounds accumulation in grass tissues and decreased biomass of Brachiaria hybrid and Brachiaria humidicola but not Panicum maximum. Consequently, the application of TPOME could be conducted on grassland and the grass species should be selected based on the utilization of grass biomass afterward.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.278-286
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• 2023

The present work evaluated the production of biohydrogen under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions through dark fermentation of palm oil mill effluent (POME) in batch mode using the design of experiment methodology. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to investigate the influence of the two significant parameters, POME concentration as substrate (5, 12.5, and 20 g/l), and volumetric substrate to inoculum ratio (1:1, 1:1.5, and 1:2, v/v.%), with inoculum concentration of 14.3 g VSS/l. All the experiments were analyzed at 37 ℃ and 55 ℃ at an incubation time of 24 h. The highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, hydrogen content (H₂%), and hydrogen yield (HY) at a substrate concentration of 12.5 g COD/l and S:I ratio of 1:1.5 in mesophilic and thermophilic conditions were obtained (27.3, 24.2%), (57.92, 66.24%), and (6.43, 12.27 ml H₂/g COD_rem), respectively. The results show that thermophilic temperature in terms of COD removal was more effective for higher COD concentrations than for lower concentrations. Optimum parameters projected by RSM with S:I ratio of 1:1.6 and POME concentration of 14.3 g COD/l showed higher results in both temperatures. It is recognized how RSM and optimization processes can predict and affect the process performance under different operational conditions.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.207-219
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• 2014

Fouling is one of the critical factors associated with the application of membrane technology in treating palm oil mill effluent (POME), due to the presence of high concentration of solid organic matter, oil, and grease. In order to overcome this, chemical cleaning is needed to enhance the effectiveness of membranes for filtration. The potential use of sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium chloride (NaCl), hydrochloric acid (HCl), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and ultrapure water (UPW) as cleaning agents have been investigated in this study. It was found that sodium hydroxide is the most powerful cleaning agent, the optimum conditions that apply are as follows: 3% for the concentration of NaOH, $45^{\circ}C$ for temperature solution, 5 bar operating pressure, and solution pH 11.64. Overall, flux recovery reached 99.5%. SEM images demonstrated that the membrane surface after cleaning demonstrated similar performance to fresh membranes. This is indicative of the fact that NaOH solution is capable of removing almost all of the foulants from PES membranes.