Palm oil mill effluent treatment by activated carbon

What is it about?

POME represents a toxic oily-based sludge produced constantly from palm oil processing industries. It was estimated that about 50–75% of POME is resulted from crude palm oil (CPO) production. Activated carbon (AC) is well-known for its effectiveness in adsorption process ascribed to its large surface area (>800 m2/g), highly porous surface structure, high resistivity towards acid/base reaction and high adsorption ability. The feasibility of converting PKS into AC using microwave vacuum pyrolysis technique was investigated, which is followed by using the AC produced to treat POME. The aim is to explore the possible routes of waste-to-wealth for palm oil mill – converting oil palm wastes (i.e. PKS) into AC for application in the treatment of POME to impede environmental pollution, and the AC can also be supplied to other industry for use as an adsorbent.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Palm kernel shell (PKS) was converted into highly porous activated carbon (AC) by microwave vacuum pyrolysis incorporated an activation by a formulated mixture of NaOH-KOH. The AC (i.e. PKS-1.0) showed encouraging features of high pore volume (0.78 cm3/g), BET surface area (1320 m2/g), fixed carbon (84.0 wt%) and carbon (85.2 wt%). The AC showed remarkable surface properties that has abundant adsorptions sites, suggesting its suitability to be used as an adsorbent. The AC was successfully upgraded into metallic AC (Al/AC and Ni/AC) and applied in the treatment of POME. All waste parameters of the treated POME were decreased to an acceptable discharge standard after 3 days of treatment with the metallic AC. The metallic AC showed higher removal rate of BOD (up to 85%) and COD (up to 89%) than normal AC. The production cost of AC using this pyrolysis method was estimated to be ranged from 4 to 10 USD/kg. The results show the exceptional promise of this pyrolysis method as an approach to transform PKS into highly porous AC for utilize as an adsorbent to treat POME.