Removal of palm oil mill effluent by using electro-oxidation process

Abstract

Wastewater includes the Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) that gives adverse impacts to the environment especially for water pollution when it is not treated properly. POME are known to have various types of liquids, residual oil and suspended solid as it has very high strength waste in its untreated form. Although conventional biological processes are normally efficient for the degradation of pollutants occurring in wastewater, most of these compounds are not effectively removed. As a result, further treatment is needed to meet more stringent discharge standards of Department of Environment (DOE). This research focused on treatment of POME by using electro-oxidation process (EO). It was done to identify the performance of EO process for colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), ammoniacal-nitrogen (NH3-N), and turbidity removal as well as the relative effects of different operational parameters such as pH, type of electrodes and contact time. The pH was varied from 3 to 11, the electrodes were aluminium and iron and the contact time was from 0 to 120 min. The most suitable pH, contact time and type of electrode were pH 3, 120 min and Al electrode.