Abstract. The disposal of palm oil mill effluent (POME) without proper treatment before being discharged into natural water sources has become undesirable because of high concentration of suspended solid (SS), oil and grease (O&G), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD). This study investigated the feasibility of removing colour, total suspended solid (TSS) and COD using acid-washed coconut shell based activated carbon (CSAC) through the evaluation of the adsorption uptake as well as the adsorption kinetics and mechanism. The percentage removal of colour, TSS and COD from POME onto CSAC were 61%, 39%, 66%, respectively achieved within 48 hours of contact time. The kinetic models studied were pseudo-first-order (PFO), pseudo-secondorder (PSO), and Elovich models. The intra-particle diffusion (IPD) model was studied to interpret the adsorption diffusion mechanism. The adsorption of colour, TSS and COD onto CSAC were best interpreted by the PSO model, and well fitted by the Elovich model. The IPD and Boyd plots indicated that IPD and film diffusion controlled the adsorption of colour, TSS and COD onto the CSAC.
Palm oil processing is a multi-stage operation which generates large amount of palm oil mill effluent (POME). Due to its potential to cause environmental pollution, POME must be treated prior to discharge. Electrocoagulation (EC), adsorption (AD), combined EC and AD, and EC integrated with AD have demonstrated great potential to remove various organic and inorganic pollutants from wastewater. Up to date, no study has been found on POME treatment using EC-AD hybrid process. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the feasibility of applying EC-AD hybrid process as an alternative treatment for POME. The EC-AD hybrid process achieved higher removal of total suspended solid (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and colour as compared to EC and AD stand-alone processes. The EC-AD hybrid process reduced 79% of TSS, 44% of COD and 89% of colour from POME. The adsorption kinetics of TSS, COD and colour were best interpreted using pseudo-second-order model, which indicated that the adsorption rate was mainly controlled by chemisorption. Overall, the EC-AD hybrid process could be recommended as an alternative treatment for POME.
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