Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Tertiary/Polishing Treatment Plant

 

Researcher: Pn. Noorshamsiana Abd. Wahab / Cik Nor Faizah Jailani

 

Under 10th Malaysian Plan (RMK-10) budget, an integrated system of palm oil mill effluent (POME) tertiary pilot plant was setup with the objective to comply with the 20 ppm BOD of the final discharge. Series of tertiary treatments that installed in POMTEC consist of:

 

• membrane filter press for sludge management

• micro-screening filtration system

• dissolve air floatation (DAF) and water recycling system

• membrane ultra-filtration (UF) system

 

Advantages

 

From pilot plant trial, the integration of micro-screen and ultra-filtration system is able to treat POME from secondary ponding system with BOD < 500 pm further down to below 20 ppm. This achieved by simultaneous removal of the suspended solids and insoluble BOD from the POME. The insoluble BOD can be reduced by removing both large and fine solids from digested POME. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Micro-screen filtration system

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Membrane ultra-filtration system

 

 

 

 

In addition, the membrane filter press system serves for continuous desludging of digested POME. This system will also help to reduce suspended solids and organic loading from aerobic/maturation pond and consequently make the further treatment easier. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Sludge management system

 

The DAF and water recycling system will serves to produce clean water for plant usage. It consisting of DAF system, granular activated carbon filter, ultrafiltration filter, reverses osmosis and chlorination proses.