Citrus fruit waste leachate treatment by using newly developed flat sheet membrane

Abstract

The increasing of population have enhanced the generation of waste in Malaysia, a country of which highly depends on landfill as a method to dispose solid waste. However, one of the problems closely related to landfill is leachate which can potentially contaminated the nearby surface water, groundwater and soil. In Malaysia, food waste is a major waste composition which can lead to generation of leachate due to their high moisture content. Citrus fruit wastes classified as one of food waste which become a concern because of its potential to create environmental pollution. Leachate from citrus fruit is acidic, high BOD and COD, high turbidity, total suspended solid and high nutrient such as nitrogen and phosphorus. These characteristic may interfere the effectiveness in wastewater treatment. Meanwhile, high nitrogen and phosphorus can lead to eutrophication. Therefore, citrus leachate needs to be treated properly in order to reduce their impacts towards the environment. The method used for citrus leachate treatment is membrane process. Membrane process had been proven their effectiveness and had been used in many applications. The previous membrane composition is used but the suitability on citrus waste is needed to investigate. The MWCO of newly developed flat sheet membrane is determined in order to study the performance of the membrane in citrus fruit waste leachate treatment.