Advancement in various stages of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) treatment process

Palm oil milling has progressed over the years with modernization and technology development. However, treatment methods for palm oil mill effluent (POME) remain archaic with little improvement in technology; due to the inherent challenges associated with the characteristics of POME along with microbial population sensitive to operational changes in the existing treatment process. It is imperative for the resolutions taken in order to advance POME treatment to fulfill the 3’E’s criteria—Efficient, Ease of operability, and Economic feasibility. This chapter presents an overview of three established methods that were tested at laboratory scale to modernize POME treatment—(i) implementing artificial intelligence for POME treatment; (ii) thermal pretreatment of POME coupled with dewatering device and (iii) post-treatment of anaerobically treated POME with coagulant assisted microbubble flotation. These enhancements have proven to improve the treated effluent quality substantially and can be integrated into existing plants.