title: Zero discharge performance of an industrial pilot-scale plant treating palm oil mill effluent.
abstract: Palm oil is one of the most important agroindustries in Malaysia. Huge quantities of palm oil mill effluent (POME) pose a great threat to aqueous environment due to its very high COD. To make full use of discharged wastes, the integrated "zero discharge" pilot-scale industrial plant comprising "pretreatment-anaerobic and aerobic process-membrane separation" was continuously operated for 1 year. After pretreatment in the oil separator tank, 55.6% of waste oil in raw POME could be recovered and sold and anaerobically digested through 2 AnaEG reactors followed by a dissolved air flotation (DAF); average COD reduced to about 3587 mg/L, and biogas production was 27.65 times POME injection which was used to generate electricity. The aerobic effluent was settled for 3 h or/and treated in MBR which could remove BOD3 (30°C) to less than 20 mg/L as required by Department of Environment of Malaysia. After filtration by UF and RO membrane, all organic compounds and most of the salts were removed; RO permeate could be reused as the boiler feed water. RO concentrate combined with anaerobic surplus sludge could be used as biofertilizer.
authors: College of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors: Jin
authors: 0000-0002-1082-7314
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad 22060, Pakistan.
authors: Qaisar
authors: Q
authors: Mahmood
authors: College of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors: Jiang-Ping
authors: JP
authors: Qiu
authors: College of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors: Yin-Sheng
authors: YS
authors: Li
authors: Ronser Bio-Tech Sdn Bhd, C708, Metropolitan Square, Bandar Damansara Perdana, 47820 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
authors: Yoon-Seong
authors: YS
authors: Chang
authors: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors: Li-Na
authors: LN
authors: Chi
authors: College of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors: Xu-Dong
authors: XD
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D005525:Food-Processing Industry / Q000379:methods*; D000073878:Palm Oil; D010938:Plant Oils; D062065:Wastewater; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000073878:Palm Oil; D010938:Plant Oils; D062065:Wastewater