Development of filter media from kenaf fiber

This study focused on developing filter media from kenaf fiber to be used in filtration of anaerobic digestion effluent. The use of low cost kenaf fiber as the filter media is a good replacement for the expensive conventional filter. The kenaf fiber is tested for its capability in post-treating the palm oil mill effluent (POME) which is a type of wastewater produced from production of palm oil. Neutral and alkali effluent were prepared to study the effect of different pH towards water quality parameters and particle size distribution of the effluent. Calcium carbonate was used to modify the pH into alkali. Neutral effluent referred to the original pH of the sample collected without any chemical addition. Suspended solids, colour, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and heavy metals were the parameters for water quality that need to be measured. Spectrophotometer is used to measure suspended solids, colour, COD while turbidity meter is used to measure turbidity. Heavy metals are traced using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and the particle size distribution was analyzed using particle size analyzer. The result shown that chemical modification towards the effluent caused membrane fouling to the kenaf filter and resulted in low water quality of the filtered effluent for pH 8. Hence, chemical modification by using calcium carbonate is not a promising alternative to further treat the anaerobic digestion effluent.