Application of Carrier Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (CABR) for Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME)

The focus of this research is to investigate the usage of Carrier Anaerobic Baffled Reactor
(CABR) for treatment of raw Pahn Oil Mill Effluent (POME). POME is the most polluted
organic residues generated from pahn oil mills. POME composes of high organic content mainly
oil and fatty acids thus contributing to its high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD). Anaerobic process is the most suitable approach for such high strength
wastewater treatment. In Malaysia, the most popular treatment method for POME which is
utilized by more than 85% of the mills is the anaerobic stabilization pond system. Effluent
sample will be taken from Nasaruddin Palm Oil Mill situated in the District of Bota, Perak.
Untreated POME in general has average values of 25,000 mg!L BOD and 50,000 mg!L of COD
and the aim of this research is to obtain the highest COD removal. A laboratory scale CABR
system is assembled using flexiglass sheets with dimensions of (0.48 m x 0.20 m x 0.29 m) and
divided into 4 baffles. The packing is made of durable and non-degradable polymer having high
a specific surface area of 8876 m2/m3 and good performance in removing organic pollution and
entrapping suspended solids (SS). The CABR system is also equipped with influent and effluent
tank of dimensions (0.23 m x 0.31 m x 0.45 m), Cole-Parmer Stir-Pak heavy duty laboratory
mixer with an angular velocity of 23 to 2300 revolutions per minute, Masterflex digital
peristaltic water pump with a flow rate of 0.6 to 3400 mL/min and a methane gas collection
chamber. Collected sludge from the same palm oil treatment facility will be used in the CABR
system as seeding material. The CABR system will be operated at 32, 22 and I 0 days hydraulic
retention time (HRT) which are the optimal HRT's for anaerobic treatment, to find the best
performance. Daily analysis will be conducted for produced methane gas, COD and TSS of
effluent and pH of every baffle. The performance of the reactor in COD content reduction will be
determined.