The performance study of Ultrasonic-assisted Membrane Anaerobic System (UMAS) for Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal efficiency and methane gas production in Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) treatment

The development of palm oil industry in Malaysia has turned into a phenomenum in which the area of plantation expanded from year to year. In the meantime, the rapid growth of the industries additionally caused detrimental effect to the environment due to its downstream and upstream processing activities. In the early ages, the residue from the production process was burned and the effluent was discharged untreated into the waterways which caused serious problem to the environment. Therefore, new technology is sought to reduce the impact on environment and at the same time the biogas is recovered as an alternative energy source in the palm oil mill. The Ultrasonic-assisted Membrane Anaerobic System (UMAS) is one of the promising technologies that can be used to overcome these issues. POME samples were taken from two different sources, i.e. final discharge pond and three-phase decanter so as to observe their performances in terms of percentage Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal efficiency and methane (CH4) production. From the study, overall results demonstrated that the sample from decanter was better in its performances compared to the final discharge pond as it produced higher COD removal efficiency (94.7%) and CH4 gas production of 24933 mL at 7 days HRT.