WASTEWATER TREATMENT

FOR A PALM OIL INDUSTRY

GOLDTREE (SL) MSc. thesis disertation - Sabrina Wanys - March 17th 2017

2

CONTENT

Background information

Palm oil production

Palm oil project in Africa

The issue with palm oil

Possible solutions

Case study

Plantation and Mill

Palm oil mill effluent :POME

Current treatment system

The issues with the current system

Proposals

DAF experiments

AD experiments

Future works

PALM OIL PRODUCTION

3

Most efficient vegetable oil to grow (T/Ha)

Found in more than 50% of retailed

products

Malaysia and Indonesia major producers

Africa is targeted for its available land

OIL PALM PROJECTS IN AFRICA

4

×10 3 ha

200

17

5

584 323

300

CEMAC = 1,429,000 ha

300

617 125

30

227

80

×10 3 ha

ECOWAS = 1,379,000 ha

THE ISSUE WITH PALM OIL

5

Deforestation

Reduction of wild life

Damage to quality and

availability of surface waters

Soil pollution

SOLUTIONS?

Ban palm oil

Regulatory system

6

CASE STUDY: GOLDTREE PLANTATION AND MILL 20 T/h milling capacity

1,000 employees

Plantation of 1,500 hectares

5,000 hectares from local farmers

-

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

9.0

10.0

11.0

12.0

PO

ME

pro

du

cti

on

x 1

0000 POME production

Projected FFB harvest

-8000

-6000

-4000

-2000

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

GOLDTREE PAT (USD)

PALM OIL MILL EFFLUENT (POME)

7

Parameters Units Abdullah, et al.

2013

Guidelines values

at discharge

pH - 3.8 6-9

COD mg/l 69,500 250

BOD mg/l 25,000 50

Total solids mg/l 55,000 -

Total suspended solid mg/l 33,600 50

Table 1: POME general characteristics and discharge limits for effluent from

vegetable oil processing set by the IFC

CASE STUDY:CURRENT TREATMENT SYSTEM

8

1

2

3

4

Location COD (mg/L)

Pond 1 65,088

Pond 2 16,264

Pond 3 1,712

Pond 4 1,052

Table 2: Measured COD values

Current system: Ponding system

Very common installation

Advantage: Simple and robust

Low installation cost

Disadvantages: Poor COD removal efficiency

Emissions of methane

CASE STUDY : PROBLEMS WITH CURRENT TREATMENT SYSTEM

9

Palm oil is in more 50% of

packaged supermarket products today

Incomplete installation

Discharge of effluent into the plantation

Signs of sludge saturation

Sings of overflow

Levels are increased by rain fall

10

PROPOSALS

OBJECTIVES:

Reach a COD content of 250 mg/l at discharge

Low cost and Robust

Simple = low-tech

Not readily sensitive to operational malfunction

LAB TESTS

DAF: Jar test for appropriate dosage of

coagulant/flocculant combination

AD: BMP to estimate the biogas production

SBR: Efficiency of residual COD removal (optional)

Proposal 2

Long term plan

Short term plan

Proposal 1

DISSOLVED AIR FLOTATION (DAF)

Physico-chemical treatment method

Uses pressurized water to get a floating

sludge blanket

The use of coagulant and flocculant might

be necessary for the grouping and

attachment of particles

Expected removal efficiency > 90%

11

DAF EXPERIMENT

12

Experiment 1: Investigate coagulant/flocculant

combination and the “bubbling” effects on RAW

POME

Evaluation parameters:

Turbidity and % sludge floating

Chemicals

Coagulants Flocculants

Ferric chloride PIX 311 Cationic: Superfloc C492

Sodium aluminate SAX 14 Anionic: Superfloc A130

Poly-Aluminum Chloride PAX 18

Poly-Aluminium Chloride PAX 14

DAF EXPERIMENT

13

Experiment 2: Investigate the effect of coagulant/

flocculant dosage on COD removal on “raw” POME

Sample Volume

200 ml

Added volume of pressurized water

400 ml

Parameter

Efficiency of COD removal

Chemicals

Raw POME AD POME

Coagulants Concentrat

ion (%)

Volume

(ml)

Volume (ml)

PAX 18 40 3, 4 & 5 0.5 & 1

Flocculants Concentrat

ion (%)

Volume

(ml)

Volume (ml)

C492 0.5 20 & 30 5

A130 0.5 20 & 30 5

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

3 4 5

Rem

oval

eff

icie

ncy (

%)

Coagulant volume (ml)

C492-20ml

C492-30ml

A130-20ml

A130-30ml

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1 2 3 4 5 6C

OD

(m

g/l

) Jar number

PAX18-1ml

PAX18-0,5ml

COD discharge limit

14

Common treatment method in palm oil

industries

Advantages

Biogas recovery

Fertigation

Disadvantages

Investment cost

Space

Lab experiment

BMP

Fed batch reactor

COVERED ANAEROBIC LAGOONS

AD EXPERIMENT

15

FUTURE WORKS

Evaluate the CH4 potential of POME

From literature: 0.106-0.350 m3CH4/kgCODrem

Investigate the removal efficiency of a DAF

treatment on effluent form a CAL reactor

16

Proposal 2

Long term plan

Short term plan

-8000

-6000

-4000

-2000

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

GOLDTREE PAT (USD)

Short term sol.

Long term sol.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

17

Prof. dr. ir. K. Rabaey

Dr. ir. J. De Vrieze

GOLDTREE

Nijhuis Industries

Sabrina Wanys MSc. Environmental sanitation

E sabrina.wanys@ugent.be

M +32 488 43 93 95

www.ugent.be

Ghent University

@ugent

Ghent University