Effect of initial pH adjustment on acetogenic treatment of palm oil mill effluent

Abstract

The waste produces from the palm oil industries either in liquid or solid forms have significant impact on the environment. Palm oil mill effluent (POME), is comprised of organic compounds which can be treated through aerobic and anaerobic degradation process. The current treatment technology of POME is mostly dependent on biological treatment process. These processes require large acreage of land and always associated with production of the greenhouses gases particularly carbon dioxide and methane gases. Hence, enhancement of the existing approach in POME treatment is very much required. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of initial pH adjustment on the treatment of POME under acetogenic condition. Initially, a suitable hydraulic retention time of four days was used in a reactor system, equipped with continuous stirring process set at a mixing rate of 50 rpm. Analyses of color, chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen, nitrite, and nitrate removal were measured. The results showed that the removal performance of COD, color, ammonia nitrogen, nitrite and nitrate were 38%, 29%, 53%, 52% and 92%, respectively. This study demonstrates that acetogenic process is a suitable and reliable environmental process in treating the POME.