Abstract:
Palm oil mill effluent (POME) was considered to be harmful as it contains high COD. It
requires immediate treatments before it discharges into the environment. The existing
treatment systems are time-consuming (100-120 days), obsolete and needs large pond
areas. In this study, a Fenton-based advanced oxidation process was introduced and
studied, along with the pre-treatment process via adsorption using activated fly ash. The
ash was prepared from fly ash produced from the burning process of oil palm shells and
was activated using a home-made microwave. The Fenton process was realized using a
Birnessite-type manganese oxide heterogeneous catalyst. The composition ash was
determined by XRF. The results of XRF showed that fly ash contained SiO2 compounds
of 40.78% and increased after activation to 62.85%. .The POME quality following the
treatment process was monitored with the measurement of COD. The result showed that
the maximum reduction in COD concentration in this tandem process was 68.89%
obtained at 25 mg of the adsorbent, diluted waste POME concentration (10:90, v/v), and
H2O2 concentration of 17,000 mg/L in 60 minutes.
