Studies on the reduction of organic load from palm oil mill effluent (POME) by bacterial strains

Abstract

Introduction Palm oil mill effluent (POME) contains large quantities of organic matter in the form of total suspended solids (TSS), volatile suspended solids (VSS), total solids (TS), oil and grease (O & G) that increase biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of POME if left untreated. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of bacterial strains either pure (individually) or mixed (combinations), to degrade and metabolize organic load from palm oil mill effluent. Results Sequencing of the 16S rRNA of the isolates suggests that they were identified as Micrococcus luteus 101 PB, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia 102 PB, Bacillus cereus 103 PB, Providencia vermicola 104 PB, Klebsiella pneumoniae 105 PB and Bacillus subtilis 106 PB. The use of mixed cultures in the present study showed more extensive removal of organic load (COD and BOD) than pure single cultures. Mixed cultures were found to reduce the pollutant dynamically. Thus, the mixed cultures C 1 (Bacillus cereus 103 PB and Bacillus subtilis 106 PB) were the most effective bacterial combination for use in biological treatment technology of POME having the highest COD and BOD reduction rate. C 1 produced the highest degradative activity in reducing COD (90.64 %) and BOD (93.11 %). Conclusion The indigenous microbial isolates from POME were observed to possess potential to degrade organic components whereas the use of mixed cultures resulted in more extensive degradation of COD and BOD than pure single cultures. This suggests that mixed culture of bacteria in the present study can be used for bioremediation of environment contaminated with polluted wastewaters. This study, however, indicates the prospect of isolating indigenous microorganisms in the POME for effective biotreatment of POME.

Reduction of organic load from palm oil mill effluent (POME) using selected fungal strains isolated from POME dump sites

“…The findings are in agreement with Qingwei et al (1998) and Bala et al (2015). The results are mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of different fungal members in the mixed culture (Chigusa et al, 1996;Benka-coker and Ekundayo, 1997;Odegaar et al, 1998).…”

“…The raw POME contains a BOD of 39,476 mg/L, COD at a concentration of 79,980 mg/L, TSS 15,238 mg/L, oil and grease 209 mg/L and pH 4.28. Similar findings were reported by Najafpour et al (2006), Vijayaraghavan et al (2007), AbdulKarim et al (2011), Lam and Lee (2011) and Bala et al (2015).…”

“…There was only 13.88% reduction efficiency with control indicating that the POME isolates are effective in COD reduction. Similar findings were reported regarding COD reduction by El-Bestawy et al (2005) Bala et al (2015) in their studies using different microorganisms. The present study is significant in understanding the role of fungi in the bioremediation of oil contaminated effluents such as POME.…”

Chitosan for direct bioflocculation of wastewater

“…Re-stabilization is induced by an excess of cationic charges at high chitosan concentration Possible clogging of filters at high concentration Chitosan requires chemical modification to improve its performance, to decrease its pH sensitivity and to enlarge the field of its potential applications; the efficiency depend on the functional groups grafted Bioflocculation using chitosan is not universal to all pollutant types, e.g., it was found effective for green microalgae but gave poor results for cyanobacteria palm oil mill effluents are produced annually (Ding et al 2016). The effluent is a thick brownish colloidal mixture of various elements including water, oil and suspended particles (Bala et al 2015). Freshly generated palm oil mill effluent is usually discharged between 80 and 90 °C and is acidic in nature, having an average pH value of about 4.5.…”

The Minimum Requirements for Nickel and Cobalt as Trace Metals in Thermophilic Biogas Fermentation of Palm Oil Mill Effluents

“…The main components of this side product are cellulose and lignocellulosic. Based on these components which containing high organic and carbon content, the most appropriate method to treat this side product is by using anaerobic digestion 1 .…”