Membrane performances and cost analysis of integrated moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane system for palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment at UKM-YSD pilot plant / Wan Nur Fatihah Wan Faris, Nur Hidayati Othman and Noor Fitrah Abu Bakar

Reclamation and reuse of water from palm oil mill effluent (POME) becomes an alternative towards achieving sustainability compared to present conventional ponding system in mills. Therefore, a pilot plant study using an integrated system consisting of a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) and membrane filtration system conducted at the UKM-YSD pilot plant presents a viable technique in POME treatment which requires less energy, maintenance cost and space. The study mainly focused on the acclimatization of the MBBR, permeate flux trends in analysing membrane performance of different configurations as well as assessing capital costs of each configuration. Acclimatization of MBBR was conducted prior to membrane filtration to reduce COD concentrations in pre-treated POME which stabilized to 150 mg/L to minimize chances of membrane fouling in reverse osmosis (RO) unit. However, final COD concentration did not achieve below 500 mg/l as required which may be due to probable reasons such as carrier floatation, fouling, settling and operational problems. Therefore, manual dilution was conducted as alternative to reduce COD concentration of feed POME. Certain units were bypassed to create four different configurations in analyzing RO flux behavior as basis of membrane performance. Configuration I which bypassed MBBR showed the least flux decline of about 15% and greater flux recovery between physical cleanings. Configuration II bypassed MBBR and RO 2 had 20% flux decline. Configuration III which bypassed MBBR and ultrafiltration (UF) unit while Configuration IV bypassed MBBR, UF unit and RO 2 both presented higher flux decline with 35% and 40% respectively. Higher flux decline is not preferable in membrane system since this represents fouling occurrence in the membrane system. Cost analysis of all four configurations showed Configuration I had the highest total capital cost for construction (with GST included) of approximately RM142,835 and Configuration II with RM114,935.8. Therefore, Configuration I and II were concluded the most costeffective system through cost analysis of each configuration whereby both configurations yielded the highest permeate flux with good flux recovery with lower maintenance for fouling.