Biological treatment of palm oil mill effluent by using a downflow hanging sponge reactor

Abstract

The performance of biological treatment using a downflow hanging sponge reactor as post-treatment of agro-industrial wastewater has been recognized worldwide. However, the effectiveness of the system in treating POME is remain unknown. Therefore, with this background in mind, an anaerobic treatment operated at COD loading rate of 0.4-0.6 kg/m3/day, HRT of 2 hours and input pH of 7.6 was run using a DHS reactor packed with sponge media for the treatment of POME. During the study, the output concentration performances of COD (32-58%), Colour (41-76%), ammoniacal nitrogen (66-92%) and phosphate (54-87%) were recorded. These results indicate comparable performances with the existing biological treatment system. However, it also offered additional credits in-term of fouling and clogging issues, practically as well as lower cost and energy consumption. Thus, it will be great to have a system that is capable to provide a simple technology which is affordable to various industrial scales.