Palm Oil Mill Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Methods

Siew, Kelly (2022) Palm Oil Mill Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Methods. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Membrane fouling is an ongoing concern that has proven a stumbling block to the widespread use of membrane technology in the industry. The effect of temperature on anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) operating under thermophilic and mesophilic regimes was studied to reduce fouling propensity, and it was found to have a significant effect on AnMBR performance, the biomass growth rate in the bioreactors was linked to the difference in operational temperatures. The mesophilic environment (45°C) had the highest COD removal efficiency, with an average COD removal efficiency of 95.60 ± 0.30 %. Despite their superior efficacy in removing organic pollutants, the bioreactors operating at 45°C had the greatest filtration resistance of all the bioreactors tested. Instead of using a single AnMBR to treat POME, the AnMBRs were combined with microbial fuel cell (MFC) to improve filtration performance (POME). Prior to AnMBR, the MFC was used as a pretreatment unit and was fed directly with POME. AnMBR was used to further treat the MFC supernatant. When compared to a single AnMBR, the combined system showed a significant improvement in filtering performance. The combined system showed a decrease in polysaccharide amount, indicating that the improved filtering performance could be related to MFC's ability to reduce filamentous bacteria, whose presence is linked to increased EPS secretion