University of Malaysia – Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Treatment

Ultrasonic Membrane Anaerobic System (UMAS) for Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Treatment

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is an important source of inland water pollution when released into local rivers or lakes without treatment. The production of palm oil, however, results in the generation of large quantities of polluted wastewater commonly referred as palm oil mill effluent (POME). UMAS were found to be an improvement and a successful biological treatment system that achieved high COD removal efficiency in a short period of time.

Below Table 2 summarises UMAS performance of six inflow rates all (at six steady-states), which were established at different HRTs and influent COD concentrations.

BIOREACTOR OPERATION

The ultrasonicated membrane anaerobic system, UMAS Performance was evaluated under six different inflow conditions (six steady-states) with influent COD concentrations ranging from (67,000 to 91,400 mg/l) and organic loading rates (OLR) between (0.5 and 9.5 kg COD/m³/d). In this study, the system was considered to have achieved steady state when the operating and control parameters were within ± 10{659260bfee9de372d251cf0f46d0d196324d619c8a7170325fda8dcf2b881e37} of the average value. A 20-litre water displacement bottle was used to measure the daily gas volume. The produced biogas contained only CO₂ and CH₄, in order to collect pure CH₄, the addition of sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH) will absorb CO₂ effectively and the remaining will be methane gas (CH₄).

Steady State (SS)	1	2	3	4	5	6
COD feed, mg/L	67000	79000	82400	86000	90000	91400
COD permeate, mg/L	980	1940	1650	1980	2200	3000
Gas production (L/d)	280.5	357	377	395	470	540
Total gas yield, L/g COD/d	0.29	0.38	0.65	0.77	0.82	0.88
{659260bfee9de372d251cf0f46d0d196324d619c8a7170325fda8dcf2b881e37} Methane	79	75.5	70.2	71.8	70.6	68.5
Ch₄ yield, l/g COD/d	0.29	0.32	0.50	0.54	0.56	0.59
MLSS, mg/L	12960	13880	15879	17700	20000	25600
MLVSS, mg/L	10091	10950	12624	14638	17000	22528
{659260bfee9de372d251cf0f46d0d196324d619c8a7170325fda8dcf2b881e37} VSS	77.86	78.89	79.50	82.7 0	85.00	88.00
HRT, d	480.3	76.40	20.3	8.78	7.36	5.40
SRT, d	860	320	132	32.6	14.56	10.6
OLR, kg COD/m³/d	0.5	1.5	3	5.5	8.5	9.5
SSUR, kg COD/kg VSS/d	0.185	0.262	0.266	0.274	0.315	0.321
SUR, kg COD/m3/d	0.0346	0.8454	3.3028	5.6657	7.7753	9.4528
Percent COD removal (MAS)	96.5	96.0	95.8	95.4	94.9	94.8
Percent COD removal (UMAS)	98.5	97.5	98.0	97.7	97.6	96.7

TABLE 2.

Summary of results (SS: steady state)

Model	Equation	R2({659260bfee9de372d251cf0f46d0d196324d619c8a7170325fda8dcf2b881e37})
Monod	U−1=2025S−1+3.61Ks=498K=0.350μMax=0.284	98.9
Contois	U−1=0.306XS−1+2.78B=0.111uMax=0.344a=0.115μMax=0.377K=0.519	97.8
Chen & Hashimoto	U−1=0.0190SoS−1+3.77K=0.006a=0.006μMax=0.291K=0.374	98.7

Full Article:
Ultrasonic Membrane Anaerobic System (UMAS) for Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Treatment

Authors:
N.H. Abdurahman, and Y.M. Rosli, Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Malaysia Pahang-UMP, Malaysia

N.H. Azhari, Faculty of Industrial Sciences and Technology, University of Malaysia Pahang-UMP, Malaysia

Reference: N.H. Abdurahman, N.H. Azhari and Y.M. Rosli (2013). Ultrasonic Membrane Anaerobic System (UMAS) for Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Treatment, International Perspectives on Water Quality Management and Pollutant Control, Dr. Nigel W.T. Quinn (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-0999-0, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/54459. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/international-perspectives-on-water-quality-management-and-pollutant-control/ultrasonic-membrane-anaerobic-system-umas-for-palm-oil-mill-effluent-pome-treatment