Handbook of Water Harvesting and Conservation

20Water Recycling from Palm Oil Mill Effluent

Hossein Farraji^1,2, Irvan Dahlan³, and Saeid Eslamian⁴

¹School of Physical and Chemical Department, University of Canterbury, Canterbury, New Zealand

²Institute of Scientific Research Aminazmay Shargh (ISRAS), Mashhad, Iran

³School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

⁴Department of Water Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran

20.1 Introduction

Nowadays, oil palm production in Malaysia has reached 20 000 000 tons (MPOB 2016). Production and by-products from the activities of 426 mills have a positive effect on the Malaysian economy. However, the other side of this industry is overpopulation (Farraji et al. 2016) and environmental impacts of the palm oil industry, which means 60 000 000 tons of effluent are a major concern for Malaysia as the leader of scientific research in green improvement.

The conventional treatment method for palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a ponding system, which is an easy-to-operate but time-consuming process in several ponds or a tank digestion system, with a high cost of operation using a large land area and having an environmental impact (Mansor et al. 2017). This method is highly dependent on land application and rivers as the final destination of effluent discharge. A zero-discharge policy or water recycling from POME could be an effective and high-performance method for sustainable development and removal of the palm oil industry ...