Treatment of palm oil mills effluent using fenton treatment / Syuhaini Ramli

High incidence of surface water pollution contributed by palm oil mill effluent (POME) is implacable and proper treatment of the effluent is necessary. Thus, the feasibility of Fenton treatment for turbidity reduction of POME was investigated to obtain the optimum operating conditions such as reaction time, H₂O₂ dosage, H₂O₂ : Fe 2+ ratio and pH condition followed by the phytotoxicity study of the treated POME. A fast reaction of Fenton was achieved within 10 minutes of treatment, which successfully removed ~87% of the turbidity. The Fenton reaction was favourable in both acidic whereby 87% of turbidity were successfully removed at pH 3. Higher percentage of turbidity removal (86%) was obtained and optimised at 25 mM of H₂O₂ with 1:1 ratio of H₂O₂ : Fe 2+ . On the other hand, the phytotoxicity of treated POME that was evaluated based on the germination index of mung beans and lady finger showed a decline of the relative toxicity from 70% and 80% of mung beans and lady finger to 40% and 70%, respectively. The final chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of treated POME at 127 mg/L was compliance with Malaysian discharge standard. These findings indicate that Fenton reaction with some optimisations is effective to be utilized for POME treatment without any signs of phytotoxicity.