TITLE:
A Study on Zeolite Performance in Waste Treating Ponds for Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent
AUTHORS:
M. Halim Shah Ismail, Shazryenna Dalang, Syafiie Syam, Shamsul Izhar
KEYWORDS:
Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME); Zeolite; Wastewater Treatment
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.5 No.7A,
July
18,
2013
ABSTRACT: Oil palm currently occupies the largest acreage of farm land in Malaysia.
In 2011, the production of palm oil in Malaysia was recorded as 19.8 million tons
which has led to a huge amount of wastewater known as palm oil mill effluent (POME).
This work focuses on the ponding system which acts as wastewater treatment plant
in order to treat POME. The conventional ponding system applied in mills consists
of a series of seven ponds. The maintenance costs of the pond are expensive thus
study of alternative methods is needed. POME treatment using zeolite shows a potential
to overcome the problem. Samples collected from selected ponds are tested and analyzed
using water analyzer method. Result from adsorption by zeolite shows a significant
reduction of COD, BOD, Fe, Zn, Mn and turbidity. This shows that zeolite is highly
potential to be applied as adsorbent in the POME treatment plants. The results here
may lead to lower maintenance cost, lower quantity of treatment ponds and lesser
land occupied for the treatment of POME in Malaysia.