Raw palm oil mill effluent (POME) contains high amount of organic materials and residual oil that will impose high biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). It has a high acidic value, high total suspended solids (TSS) and is dark brownish in colour. Raw POME is a highly polluting wastewater and as such, it cannot be freely and/or directly discharged into any source of water or river without prior proper treatment. The treatment of raw POME is an important issue in palm oil mills and the method of treatment has attracted many researchers and non-governmental organisation (NGO) associated with environmental pollution. Owing to the more stringent effluent environmental regulations by the Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia, research interest has recently shifted to the development of sustainable effluent polishing technologies. Therefore, it is perhaps worthwhile to look into a new viable and sustainable technology such as utilisation of renewable oil palm biomass as bio-adsorbents. This article reviews the development of polishing treatments for POME final discharge and further discusses the application of palm-based activated carbon for the treatment system. In conclusion, the integration system of conventional POME treatment with bio-adsorbents could be considered as a sustainable approach, thus solving environmental problems of waste disposal and pollution control for the oil palm industry.
A double insulated carbonisation-activation reactor was developed in order to produce activated carbon with high yield and surface area. This reactor was double insulated using low cement castable and covered around the internal space of the reactor with stainless steel plated and fibre glass jacketed heat insulation layer, which allow efficient heat transfer into the bed of material in the reactor. The carbonisation of oil palm kernel shell (OPKS) at 400 °C, followed by steam activation at 500-1000 °C continuously in the same reactor, with steam flow rate of 12.80-18.17 L/min had improved the activated carbon surface area from 305 ± 10.2 m2/g to 935 ± 36.7 m2/g and gave a high yield of 30% within 7 h retention time with a low gaseous emission. The activated carbon produced was successfully applied as bioadsorbent for the treatment of POME final discharge with the reduction of TSS, COD, colour and BOD up to 90%, 68%, 97% and 83%, respectively which met the standard set by Department of Environment Malaysia (DOE).
The carbonisation-activation system was developed to produce activated carbon from oil palm kernel shell (OPKS). The OPKS was carbonised at 500°C for 3 hr in an electric vertical reactor followed by steaming at 700°C for another 3 hr in the same reactor. The process showed significant results with a high activated carbon yield of 32%, high fixed carbon content of 88.6% with Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 305.67 m 2 g-1. The OPKS-activated carbon was further tested to remove methylene blue. It could adsorb up to 99.7% of methylene blue using only 0.6 g litre-1 dosage of OPKS-activated carbon, for 24 hr of treatment time. The results have been correlated in the Freundlich isotherm which was well fitted to the experimental data over the methylene blue experimental concentration range with correlation coefficients of R 2 =0.992.
This research work deals with the production of vermicompost from empty fruit bunch (EFB) blended with cow dung using an epigeic earthworm known as Eudrilus Eugeniae. The vermicomposting mixture was carried out in a humid environment with moisture content between 70% to 80% and a pH of between 6 to 8. Natural zeolite, such as clinoptilolite and charcoal were mixed with vermicompost at different ratios and prior to being pelletized. The highest cation exchange capacity (CEC) was observed at 10% of zeolite (Z2) and 20% of charcoal (C4) mixtures. The proportion of 10% zeolite in the mixture resulted in the highest of Cu reduction by 44% and manganese by 60% and in addition the 15% charcoal caused the highest reduction of iron (Fe) by 32%. A significant decrease in carbon to nitrogen C/N ratio and an overall increase in total nitrogen, total available phosporous and total potassium were also discussed in this paper.
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