Title: An investigation into the effect of different coagulants at different concentrations on anaerobically digested palm oil mill effluent (POME) at the final discharge. Background: Malaysia has been playing an important role in global palm oil production. In 2012, Malaysia has recorded a total production of 18.79 million tonnes of crude palm oil, being the second largest producer in the world, after Indonesia’s 20.9 million tonnes annually. However, having exported 18 million tonnes of palm oil products in 2011, Malaysia is still the largest exporter of palm oil. Hence, an improved method of POME treatment will bring significant benefit to the process of palm oil mill operation. Raw POME causes serious environmental harm and based on standards imposed by the the Department of Environment of Malaysia it needs to be treated prior to being released to the environment, therefore most palm oil mills will employ anaerobic digestion to treat the POME as a primary form of treatment by biodegradation. As the BOD/COD ratio of POME is 0.5 it can be treated by the anaerobic process. In the anaerobic digestion process, the raw POME is first converted into volatile fatty acids by acid forming bacteria. The volatile acids are then converted into methane and carbon dioxide. The advantages of anaerobic digestion are the two phase systems allows greater control of digester environmental conditions, the long solid retention times allow better biodegradation efficiencies and there is a capability to cope with a full effluent load. On the other hand, due to production of organic acid during fermentation process, POME is generally low in PH, ranging from 4 to 5. However, the sample used has anaerobically digested, hence pH value will usually range from 7 to 9. Simultaneously, it is worthwhile to identify the optimum dosage for each of the coagulant used in order to have anaerobically digested POME further treated and complied with the regulatory standards for 1
Title:An investigation into the effect of different coagulants
at different concentrations on anaerobically digested palm oil mill
effluent (POME) at the final discharge.Background:Malaysia has been
playing an important role in global palm oil production. In 2012,
Malaysia has recorded a total production of 18.79 million tonnes of
crude palm oil, being the second largest producer in the world,
after Indonesias 20.9 million tonnes annually. However, having
exported 18 million tonnes of palm oil products in 2011, Malaysia
is still the largest exporter of palm oil. Hence, an improved
method of POME treatment will bring significant benefit to the
process of palm oil mill operation.
Raw POME causes serious environmental harm and based on
standards imposed by the the Department of Environment of Malaysia
it needs to be treated prior to being released to the environment,
therefore most palm oil mills will employ anaerobic digestion to
treat the POME as a primary form of treatment by biodegradation. As
the BOD/COD ratio of POME is 0.5 it can be treated by the anaerobic
process. In the anaerobic digestion process, the raw POME is first
converted into volatile fatty acids by acid forming bacteria. The
volatile acids are then converted into methane and carbon dioxide.
The advantages of anaerobic digestion are the two phase systems
allows greater control of digester environmental conditions, the
long solid retention times allow better biodegradation efficiencies
and there is a capability to cope with a full effluent load.
On the other hand, due to production of organic acid during
fermentation process, POME is generally low in PH, ranging from 4
to 5. However, the sample used has anaerobically digested, hence pH
value will usually range from 7 to 9. Simultaneously, it is
worthwhile to identify the optimum dosage for each of the coagulant
used in order to have anaerobically digested POME further treated
and complied with the regulatory standards for discharging into
water bodies without causing significant pollution.The experiment
will investigate the effect of different coagulants used to treat
anaerobically digested POME at final discharge in terms of changes
in suspended solids and COD/BOD measurement. The sample
(anaerobically digested POME) will be treated with coagulation and
flocculation to a standard to be recycled back into the Palm Oil
Mill as process water. It is necessary to reduce to contaminants
(suspended solids, BOD, COD) to as low as possible to reduce build
up over time. Ideally, the further treated anaerobically digested
POME should have values that correspond with drinking water
standards, and therefore should have a BOD value of
