Immobilization of Chlorella vulgaris for Palm Oil Mill Effluent(POME) Treatment and Heavy Metals Removal

Being one of the major aquatic pollutants in Malaysia, palm oil mill effluent or
POME contains harmful organic soluble materials, specifically nitrogen and organic
carbon. Not only that, POME also has a high level of chemical oxygen demand
(COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and heavy metals content which can
critically jeopardize the environment by causing eutrophication. Hence, POME must
be discharged to the environment as treated wastewater with the nutrients efficiently
removed. Treatment of wastewater with the usage of immobilized microalgae has
been proved to have significant advantages over the conventional treatment.
Therefore, in this project, Chlorella vulgaris is specifically chosen as the focused
species of microalgae where it is cultured, immobilized in alginate beads and
undergoes nutrient removal experiments.