Comparison of Degradation of Refinery Biomass Through Aerobic and Anaerobic Digestion

This research aims to monitor the pattern of organic degradation of biomass from effluent treatment system by utilizing two distinct methods which are aerobic and anaerobic system. In the wastewater treatment system, the sludge that is used in the treatment will be settled inside the clarifier tank. Some of them will be return as return activated sludge and some of them will be treated either by aerobic system or anaerobic system before being disposed. The organic contents that will be measured are Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS) and mixed liquor volatile suspended solid (MLVSS). The sample was obtained from PETRONAS Penapisan Melaka Sdn Bhd (PPMSB) and the experiment is conducted using Anaerobic Sludge Digester. The scope of study will include the characterization of the biomass, the determination of COD, MLSS and MLVSS and the comparison between the aerobic system and anaerobic system. The methodology will include the characterization of the sample, the separation process of supernatant and the sludge, Then the biomass was placed inside the Anaerobic Sludge Digester which is into aerobic and anaerobic reactor with different temperature. Sampling was conducted for the first 24 hours and then continued on daily basis. The final results have shown that there is 88 % of MLSS degradation and 91 % decrease of MLVSS concentration in 24 hours in both reactors and the degradation pattern is successfully obtained. It can be seen that the anaerobic reactor resulted in higher organic content value and also higher degradation rate compared to the aerobic reactor. A comparison will be made for the effectiveness of both methods so that it can be a guide for a better sludge treatment process in the industry.