Performance of Integrated Anaerobic Baffled Reactor – Sequencing Batch Reactor System on Treatment of Raw Palm Oil Mill Effluent

Palm oil industry is one of the leading oil industries in Malaysia; with the rapid growth it has cause tremendous increase in environmental pollution. Most palm oil industries are usually located near rivers from which water is abstracted for their milling operation. Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a highly polluting wastewater that pollutes the environment if discharged directly due to its high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) concentration of 67,500 mg/L and 29,500 mg/L, respectively. There are conventional methods applied by palm oil mill that require large carbon footprint, long HRT and fail to meet Malaysian Department of Environment (DOE) discharge limit. Thus, this research aimed to investigate the performance of integrated anaerobic baffled reactor – sequencing batch reactor system of POME. Result shows that it insufficient to rely only on anaerobic system, thus aerobic treatment is introduced and combined to produce requirement meeting discharge. Hence, the integrated anaerobic-aerobic system aims in treating POME to a standard that meet requirements of DOE and overcome the shortcomings of the conventional system.
Keywords: palm oil mill effluent, anaerobic baffled reactor, sequencing batch reactor