Physico-Chemical characteristics of palm oil mill effluent anaerobic sludge as a potential bio-derived fuel

• Published in: AIP Conference Proceedings
• Main Author: Sukor M.Z.; Jamaludin S.I.S.; Sanusi S.N.A.; Muhamad S.H.A.; Samah N.A.A.
• Format: Conference paper
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85188323530&doi=10.1063%2f5.0180615&partnerID=40&md5=9534e047ae0ef6e9c09543261caa08f6

Palm oil mill effluent (POME), a byproduct of the palm oil industry, has a number of issues that can have a severe influence on the environment. Water contamination has been exacerbated by issues such as inappropriate control of POME effluent discharge into natural water bodies and huge volumes of POME production from palm oil mills. It was discovered that there have been very few investigations on converting POME anaerobic sludge into beneficial products. Therefore, this research looks into the feasibility of converting the POME anaerobic sludge into a valuable product by evaluating its high heating value (HHV) and lignocellulosic content. Three essential analyses were used in this study. First is the ultimate analysis, to determine the composition of C, H, N and O in the POME anaerobic sludge. The second type of analysis is proximate analysis, which covers moisture content, volatile matter, fixed carbon, and ash content and the third is lignocellulosic analysis, which includes organic compound categorization. The results revealed that converting POME anaerobic sludge into bio-derived fuel was a very viable option to be considered. This is due to its low moisture and ash content, as well as high volatile matter and fixed carbon, indicating that POME anaerobic sludge contains significant HHV. It was also supported by reliable results from ultimate analysis of CHNO in POME anaerobic sludge and HHV value of 11.183 MJ/kg obtained from calculation which revealed that POME anaerobic sludge is promising to be used as feedstock in hydrothermal process to produce bio-derived fuel. © 2024 Author(s).