A Novel and Sustainable Approach in Treating Restaurant Wastewater with Kapok Fiber through a Compact Biodegradable Oil Absorption Filter System

Turunawarasu, Dhanaraj (2012) A Novel and Sustainable Approach in Treating Restaurant Wastewater with Kapok Fiber through a Compact Biodegradable Oil Absorption Filter System. [Final Year Project] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Restaurant typically discharges fats, oil and grease (FOG) as well as surfactant
( dishwashing detergent) - containing wastewater directly into the waterways that is
generated by their daily kitchen activities, for which there is currently no acceptable
technology due to its high capital cost, large space requirement to operate, extensive
maintenance activities requirement, possesses detrimental hazard to the environment
and fail to remove FOG to meet discharge standards. As a result, oil sorption
efficiency and hydrophobic-oleophilic characteristics of an agricultural product,
Kapok (Cieba pentandra) will be thoroughly examined in this paper for its
feasibility as an absorbent medium in order to treat restaurant wastewater where the
aim is to develop a compact biodegradable absorption filter. The objective of this
project is to; (I) Study the effect of various packing densities of Kapok filter and
inlet flow rate on the cooking oil absorption efficiency and outlet flow rate, (2) To
design a compact biodegradable oil absorption filter based on the chosen packing
density to curb the current problem faced in restaurant wastewater and (3) To study
the effect of cooking oil and surfactant concentrations on the filtrate turbidity and
filtration efficiency. Based on the results obtained, the best possible packing density
that should be applied for the Kapok filter design under gravitational pressure
gradient would be 0.02 g/cm3 since it contributes to better outlet flow rate, high
filtration efficiency (96%) with the least filtrate turbidity and has larger size of the
effective flow channel and area to entrap the emulsified oil. Based on UV
Spectrometer test, the result shows that the surfactant could not be separated from
the water-surfactant mixture. However, with the presence of surfactant in water-oil
mixture the kapok filter system is capable to separate oil efficiently as surfactant
enable to break oil molecules to smaller suspended droplets (emulsion) which results
in higher filtration efficiency. Kapok has shown a great potential as an natural oil
sorbent in treating restaurant wastewater (FOG) due the fact that it is hydrophobicoleophilic
in nature.

Item Type: Final Year Project
Subjects: T Technology > TP Chemical technology
Departments / MOR / COE: Engineering > Chemical
Depositing User: Users 2053 not found.
Date Deposited: 31 Oct 2013 08:56
Last Modified: 25 Jan 2017 09:41
URI: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/id/eprint/10122

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