Electrocoagulation of palm oil mill effluent as wastewater treatment and hydrogen production using electrode aluminum

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is highly polluting wastewater generated from the palm oil milling process. Palm oil mill effluent was used as an electrolyte without any additive or pretreatment to perform electrocoagulation (EC) using electricity (direct current) ranging from 2 to 4 volts in the presence of aluminum electrodes with a reactor volume of 20 L. The production of hydrogen gas, removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), and turbidity as a result of electrocoagulation of POME were determined. The results show that EC can reduce the COD and turbidity of POME by 57 and 62%, respectively, in addition to the 42% hydrogen production. Hydrogen production was also helpful to remove the lighter suspended solids toward the surface. The production of Al(OH)XHO at the aluminum electrode (anode) was responsible for the flocculation-coagulation process of suspended solids followed by sedimentation under gravity. The production of hydrogen gas from POME during EC was also compared with hydrogen gas production by electrolysis of tap water at pH 4 and tap water without pH adjustment under the same conditions. The main advantage of this study is to produce hydrogen gas while treating POME with EC to reduce COD and turbidity effectively.     

Biological treatment of anaerobically digested palm oil mill effluent (POME) using a Lab-Scale Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR)

The production of highly polluting palm oil mill effluent (POME) has resulted in serious environmental hazards. While anaerobic digestion is widely accepted as an effective method for the treatment of POME, anaerobic treatment of POME alone has difficulty meeting discharge limits due to the high organic strength of POME. Hence, subsequent post-treatment following aerobic treatment is vital to meet the discharge limits. The objective of the present study is to investigate the aerobic treatment of anaerobically digested POME by using a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The SBR performance was assessed by measuring Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) removal as well as Sludge Volume Index (SVI). The operating pH and dissolved oxygen concentrations were found to be 8.25–9.14 and 1.5–6.4 mg/L, respectively, throughout the experiment. The experimental results demonstrate that MLVSS, OLR and sludge loading rate (SLR) play a significant role in the organic removal efficiency of SBR systems and therefore, further investigation on these parameters was conducted to attain optimum SBR performance. Maximum COD (95–96%), BOD (97–98%) and TSS (98–99%) removal efficiencies were achieved at optimum OLR, SLR and MLVSS concentration ranges of 1.8–4.2 kg COD/m³ day, 2.5–4.6 kg TSS/m³ day and 22,000–25,000 mg/L, respectively. The effluent quality remained stable and complied with the discharge limit. At the same time, the sludge showed good settling properties with average SVI of 65. It is envisaged that the SBR process could complement the anaerobic treatment to produce final treated effluent which meets the discharge limit.     

Magnetic composite prepared from palm shell-based carbon and application for recovery of residual oil from POME

Magnetic separation combined with adsorption by activated carbon has been found to be a useful method for removing pollutants. In this paper, the use of palm shell as a source of activated carbon for the removal and recovery of oil from palm oil mill effluent (POME) is studied. In the first part of the study, the properties of samples of activated carbon prepared from palm shell under a variety of different conditions were characterized for their hydrophobicity, surface areas and pore size distribution. The most effective of the activated carbon samples was prepared by impregnation with ZnCl(2) followed by combined physical/chemical activation under carbon dioxide flow at 800 °C. Four grams of these samples adsorbed 90% of the oil from 50 mL POME. In the second part, the palm shell-based carbon samples were given magnetic properties by the technique of iron oxide deposition. Ninety-four percent of the activated carbon/iron oxide composite containing the adsorbed oil could be extracted from the POME by a magnetic bar of 0.15 T. Four grams of the composite can remove 85% of oil from 50 mL POME and a total of 67% of the initial oil can then be recovered by hexane extraction. Powder X-ray diffractometry showed the presence of magnetite and maghemite in the activated carbon/iron oxide composite.     

Effects of palm oil mill effluent media on cell growth and lipid content of Nannochloropsis oculata and Tetraselmis suecica

In this study, palm oil mill effluent (POME) was used as an alternative medium for algal biomass and lipid production. The influence of different concentrations of filtered and centrifuged POME in sea water (1, 5, 10 and 15%) on microalgal cell growth and lipid yield were investigated. Both Nannochloropsis oculata and Tetraselmis suecica had enhanced cell growth and lipid accumulation at 10% POME with maximum specific growth rate (0.21 d^–1 and 0.20 d^–1) and lipid content (39.1 ± 0.73% and 27.0 ± 0.61%), respectively, after 16 days of flask cultivation. The total Saturated Fatty Acid (SFA) (59.24%, 68.74%); Monounsaturated Fatty Acid (MUFA) (15.14%, 12.26%); and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA) (9.07%, 8.88%) were obtained for N. oculata and T. suecica, respectively, at 10% POME. Algal cultivation with POME media also enhanced the removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) (93.6–95%), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) (96–97%), Total Organic Compound (TOC) (71–75%), Total Nitrogen (TN) (78.8–90.8%) and oil and grease (92–94.9%) from POME.     

Pollution control technologies for the treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) through end-of-pipe processes

Palm oil production is one of the major industries in Malaysia and this country ranks one of the largest productions in the world. In Malaysia, the total production of crude palm oil in 2008 was 17,734,441 tonnes. However, the production of this amount of crude palm oil results in even larger amounts of palm oil mill effluent (POME). In the year 2008 alone, at least 44 million tonnes of POME was generated in Malaysia. Currently, the ponding system is the most common treatment method for POME but other processes such as aerobic and anaerobic digestion, physicochemical treatment and membrane filtration may also provide the palm oil industries with possible insights into the improvement of POME treatment processes. Generally, open ponding offers low capital and operating costs but this conventional method is becoming less attractive because the methane produced is wasted to the atmosphere and the system can not be certified for Carbon Emission Reduction trading. On the other hand, anaerobic digestion of POME provides the fastest payback of investment because the treatment enables biogas recovery for heat generation and treated effluent for land application. Lastly, it is proposed herewith that wastewater management based on the promotion of cleaner production and environmentally sound biotechnologies should be prioritized and included as a part of the POME management in Malaysia for attaining sustainable development. This paper thus discusses and compares state-of-the-art POME treatment methods as well as their individual performances.     

Biohythane production from pineapple peel using Methanosarcina mazei enhanced with palm oil mill effluent (POME) sludge in single-stage anaerobic digestion

Biohythane production via single-stage anaerobic digestion (AD) is an effective way for sustainable energy recovery from lignocellulosic biomass. In this paper, biohythane was produced through the AD process from pineapple peel waste substrate using purely cultured Methanosarcina mazei with the enhancement of palm oil mill effluent (POME) sludge as the inoculum. This study focuses on the effects of the lignocellulosic pre-treatment method, the addition of POME sludge into M. mazei culture medium as inoculum, and various operational conditions (food to microorganisms (F/M) ratios, temperature, pH) on gas production performances. The experimental results indicate that these parameters influenced the efficiency of biohythane production by producing the peak maximum biohythane production rate values (HPR_max) and (MPR_max), H₂:CH₄ = 1.93:0.67 L/L-d, and biohythane yield (HY) and (MY), H₂:CH₄ = 1.18:0.55 mL/L-substrate. This study demonstrates that biohythane gas (H₂ + CH₄ + CO₂) production from pineapple waste can be accelerated by M. mazei only with the enhancement of POME sludge through single-stage AD system under mesophilic batch process conditions.     

Relationships between anaerobic consortia and removal efficiencies in an UASB reactor degrading 2,4 dichlorophenol (DCP)

To gain more insight into the interactions between anaerobic bacteria and reactor performances (chemical oxygen demand-COD, 2,4 dichlorophenol-2,4 DCP removals, volatile fatty acid-VFA, and methane gas productions) and how they depended on operational conditions the microbial variations in the anaerobic granular sludge from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating 2,4 DCP was studied. The study was composed of two parts. In the first part, the numbers of methanogens and acedogens in the anaerobic granular sludge were counted at different COD removal efficiencies. The relationships between the numbers of methanogens, the methane gas production and VFA production were investigated. The COD removal efficiencies increased to 74% from 30% while the number of total acedogens decreased to 10 from 30 cfu ml(-1). The number of total methanogens and acedogens varied between 11 x 10(3) and 10 x 10(9)MPN g(-1) and 10 and 30 cfu ml(-1) as the 2,4 DCP removal efficiencies were obtained between 60% and 99%, respectively. It was seen that, as the number of total acedogens decreased, the COD removal efficiencies increased. However, the number of total methanogens increased as the COD removal efficiencies increased. Correlations between the bacterial number and with the removal efficiencies obtained in different operational conditions were investigated. From the results presented in this paper a high correlation between the number of bacteria, COD removals, methane gas percentage, 2,4 DCP removals and VFA was observed. In the second part, methanogen bacteria in the anaerobic granular sludge were identified. Microbial observations and biochemical tests were applied to identify the anaerobic microorganisms from the anaerobic granular sludge. In the reactor treating 2,4 DCP, Methanobacterium bryantii, Methanobacterium formicicum, Methanobrevibacter smithii, Methanococcus voltae, Methanosarcina mazei, Methanosarcina acetivorans, Methanogenium bourgense and Methanospirillum hungatei were identified.     

Inhibitory effects of butyrate on biological hydrogen production with mixed anaerobic cultures

In this study batch experiments were conducted to investigate the inhibitory effects of butyrate addition on hydrogen production from glucose by using anaerobic mixed cultures. Experimental results showed that addition of butyrate at 4.18 and 6.27 g/l only slightly inhibited hydrogen production, and addition of butyrate at 8.36-12.54 g/l imposed a moderate inhibitory effect on hydrogen production. At addition of 25.08 g/l, butyrate had a strong inhibitory influence on substrate degradation and hydrogen production. The distribution of the volatile fatty acids produced from the acidogeneisis of glucose was significantly influenced by the addition of butyrate. The inhibition of butyrate addition on hydrogen production was described well by a non-competitive and non-linear inhibition model, with the maximum hydrogen production rate of 59.3 ml/g-SS/h, critical added butyrate concentration of 25.08 g/l, and inhibition degree of 0.323, respectively. The C(I,50) values (the butyrate concentration at which bioactivity is reduced by 50%) for hydrogen production rate and yield were estimated as 19.39 and 20.78 g/l of added butyrate, respectively.     

Aerobic treatment of palm oil mill effluent

In this study treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) was investigated using aerobic oxidation based on an activated sludge process. The effects of sludge volume index, scum index and mixed liquor suspended solids during the acclimatizing phase and biomass build-up phase were investigated in order to ascertain the reactor stability. The efficiency of the activated sludge process was evaluated by treating anaerobically digested and diluted raw POME obtained from Golden Hope Plantations, Malaysia. The treatment of POME was carried out at a fixed biomass concentration of 3900+/-200mg/L, whereas the corresponding sludge volume index was found to be around 105+/-5mL/g. The initial studies on the efficiency of the activated sludge reactor were carried out using diluted raw POME for varying the hydraulic retention time, viz: 18, 24, 30 and 36h and influent COD concentration, viz: 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000mg/L, respectively. The results showed that at the end of 36h of hydraulic retention time for the above said influent COD, the COD removal efficiencies were found to be 83%, 72%, 64%, 54% and 42% whereas at 24h hydraulic retention time they were 57%, 45%, 38%, 30% and 27%, respectively. The effectiveness of aerobic oxidation was also compared between anaerobically digested and diluted raw POME having corresponding CODs of 3908 and 3925mg/L, for varying hydraulic retention time, viz: 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54 and 60h. The dissolved oxygen concentration and pH in the activated sludge reactor were found to be 1.8-2.2mg/L and 7-8.5, respectively. The scum index was found to rise from 0.5% to 1.9% during the acclimatizing phase and biomass build-up phase.     

多元回归和BP人工神经网络模型对混合厌氧消化产气量的预测研究

在中温且控制pH值条件下,对脂肪类单基质和城市污水厂剩余污泥进行混合厌氧消化试验。基于多元回归原理和BP人工神经网络原理,对其建立产气量预测模型。由实验数据计算得出:两个阶段多元回归模型的预测平均准确率分别为75.69%和79.29%;BP神经网络模型的预测平均准确率为79.05%。通过对比两种模型的预测结果可知,两种模型都有较高的预测准确率,但BP模型的预测准确率更高,更适用于混合厌氧消化产气量预测。     

Treatment and reuse of sewage sludge

Sewage sludge was treated using composting, fixed-bed and stirred anaerobic digesters. The treatment performance in terms of the physico chemical parameters, bacterial indicators and pathogenic forms were assessed. In addition, the biogas production rate was recorded in the case of anaerobic digesters. Composting of the sewage sludge increased its total solids from 39 to 93% after 6 weeks, while the reduction in organic matter was 40% and the total nitrogen and phosphorus contents increased by 22 and 30%, respectively. Complete removal of salmonellae and faecal coliforms occurred, so that the composted sludge could be used as a soil conditioner and fertilizer. The results of the anaerobic treatment indicated that an organic load of 4.8kg COD m–3 per day achieved the best operating conditions for either the stirred or fixed-bed digester. The mean percentage removals of COD, BOD, faecal coliforms, faecal streptococci and the biogas production rate for the stirred digester were 53, 53, 24 and 29% and 259 L kg–1 COD per day, respectively. The corresponding mean percentage removals and production rate for the experiments with a fixed-bed digester were 61, 62, 33 and 35% and 328 L kg–1 COD per day, respectively. Improvements in the BOD and faecal coliform reductions and the gas production rate of 17, 38 and 21%, respectively, were achieved due to the presence of media (Berl saddles) in the fixed-bed digester. The microbial content of the anaerobically treated sludge is too high to be used as a fertilizer, while that of the composted sludge is low enough for such use.     

Comparison of different pre-treatment methods for enriching hydrogen-producing bacteria from intertidal sludge

Batch tests of cultivations were conducted to analyze influences of pre-treatment methods (heat–shock, acid, and alkaline) on hydrogen production. The hydrogen yields of the pre-treated samples were significantly higher than those without pre-treatment. Heat–shock pre-treatment yielded maximum hydrogen (75.5 ± 4.0 mL/g sucrose_removed), and had the highest sucrose removal efficiency (81.20 ± 1.23%). Heat–shock pre-treatment produced more ethanol and acetate (80.44 ± 0.55% of the total soluble metabolites), which belonged to ethanol-type fermentation. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles showed that pre-treatment methods affected the composition of microbial communities. The results showed that pre-treatment methods play a key role in the hydrogen production process of marine hydrogen-producing microflora.     

Improvement of fruit and vegetable waste anaerobic digestion performance and stability with co-substrates addition

The effect of fish waste (FW), abattoir wastewater (AW) and waste activated sludge (WAS) addition as co-substrates on the fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) anaerobic digestion performance was investigated under mesophilic conditions using four anaerobic sequencing batch reactors (ASBR) with the aim of finding the better co-substrate for the enhanced performance of co-digestion. The reactors were operated at an organic loading rate of 2.46–2.51 g volatile solids (VS) l⁻¹ d⁻¹, of which approximately 90% were from FVW, and a hydraulic retention time of 10 days. It was observed that AW and WAS additions with a ratio of 10% VS enhanced biogas yield by 51.5% and 43.8% and total volatile solids removal by 10% and 11.7%, respectively. However FW addition led to improvement of the process stability, as indicated by the low VFAs/Alkalinity ratio of 0.28, and permitted anaerobic digestion of FVW without chemical alkali addition. Despite a considerable decrease in the C/N ratio from 34.2 to 27.6, the addition of FW slightly improved the gas production yield (8.1%) compared to anaerobic digestion of FVW alone. A C/N ratio between 22 and 25 seemed to be better for anaerobic co-digestion of FVW with its co-substrates. The most significant factor for enhanced FVW digestion performance was the improved organic nitrogen content provided by the additional wastes. Consequently, the occurrence of an imbalance between the different groups of anaerobic bacteria which may take place in unstable anaerobic digestion of FVW could be prevented.     

An economic evaluation on the purification and storage of waste hydrogen for the use of fuel cell scooters

Safe and reliable metal hydride canisters (MHCs) for the use of hydrogen storage at low pressure can be applied to supply small fuel cell vehicles or scooters with hydrogen fuel. However, greater cost-effectiveness of hydrogen gas is obviously necessary to the successful promotion of hydrogen fuel cell scooters in the market. In this study, we use the net present value (NPV) method to evaluate the feasibility of an investment project on the supply of purified hydrogen in a pulp company at Hualien, Taiwan. The purified hydrogen can be separated from waste hydrogen by using pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology and then be stored in MHCs. Under some assumptions of improved parameters about hydrogen production cost and hydrogen gas price, the discounted payback period of hydrogen purification and storage project in our study can be less than 10 years and the unit cost of hydrogen gas can be close to the price of gasoline. Moreover, the unit cost of hydrogen gas in our study can be lower than the cost from other sources of hydrogen.     

DERIVATION OF THE GAMMA DISTRIBUTION BY USING THE PRINCIPLE OF MAXIMUM ENTROPY (POME)1

The principle of maximum entropy (POME) was used to derive the two-parameter gamma distribution used frequently in synthesis of instantaneous or finite-period unit hydrographs. The POME yielded the minimally prejudiced gamma distribution by maximizing the entropy subject to two appropriate constraints which were the mean of real values and the mean of the logarithms of real values of the variable. It provided a unique method for parameter estimation. Experimental data were used to compare this method with the methods of moments, cumulants, maximum likelihood estimation, and least squares.     

Electricity systems with near-zero emissions of CO2 based on wind energy and coal gasification with CCS and hydrogen storage

Emissions from electricity generation will have to be reduced to near-zero to meet targets for reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions. Variable renewable energy sources such as wind will help to achieve this goal but they will have to be used in conjunction with other flexible power plants with low-CO₂ emissions. A process which would be well suited to this role would be coal gasification hydrogen production with CCS, underground buffer storage of hydrogen and independent gas turbine power generation. The gasification hydrogen production and CO₂ capture and storage equipment could operate at full load and only the power plants would need to operate flexibly and at low load, which would result in substantial practical and economic advantages. This paper analyses the performances and costs of such plants in scenarios with various amounts of wind generation, based on data for power demand and wind energy variability in the UK. In a scenario with 35% wind generation, overall emissions of CO₂ could be reduced by 98–99%. The cost of abating CO₂ emissions from the non-wind residual generation using the technique proposed in this paper would be less than 40% of the cost of using coal-fired power plants with integrated CCS.     

Performance of sequential anaerobic/aerobic digestion applied to municipal sewage sludge

A promising alternative to conventional single phase processing, the use of sequential anaerobic-aerobic digestion, was extensively investigated on municipal sewage sludge from a full scale wastewater treatment plant. The objective of the work was to evaluate sequential digestion performance by testing the characteristics of the digested sludge in terms of volatile solids (VS), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and nitrogen reduction, biogas production, dewaterability and the content of proteins and polysaccharides. VS removal efficiencies of 32% in the anaerobic phase and 17% in the aerobic one were obtained, and similar COD removal efficiencies (29% anaerobic and 21% aerobic) were also observed. The aerobic stage was also efficient in nitrogen removal providing a decrease of the nitrogen content in the supernatant attributable to nitrification and simultaneous denitrification. Moreover, in the aerobic phase an additional marked removal of proteins and polysaccharides produced in the anaerobic phase was achieved. The sludge dewaterability was evaluated by determining the Optimal Polymer Dose (OPD) and the Capillary Suction Time (CST) and a significant positive effect due to the aerobic stage was observed. Biogas production was close to the upper limit of the range of values reported in the literature in spite of the low anaerobic sludge retention time of 15 days. From a preliminary analysis it was found that the energy demand of the aerobic phase was significantly lower than the recovered energy in the anaerobic phase and the associated additional cost was negligible in comparison to the saving derived from the reduced amount of sludge to be disposed.     

Ethanol production from alkali-pretreated oil palm empty fruit bunch by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation with mucor indicus

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) is a potential raw material for production of lignocellulosic bioethanol. The OPEFB was pretreated with 8% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution at 100°C for 10 to 90 min. Enzymatic digestion was carried out using cellulase and β-glucosidase at 45°C for 24 h. It was then inoculated with Mucor indicus spores suspension and fermented under anaerobic conditions at 37°C for 96 h. Sodium hydroxide pretreatment effectively removed 51–57% of lignin in the OPEFB and also its hemicellulose (40–84%). The highest glucan digestibility (0.75 g/g theoretical glucose) was achieved in 40-min NaOH pretreatment. Fermentation by M. indicus resulted in 68.4% of the theoretical ethanol yield, while glycerol (16.2–83.2 mg/g), succinic acid (0–0.4 mg/g), and acetic acid (0–0.9 mg/g) were its by-products. According to these results, 11.75 million tons of dry OPEFB in Indonesia can be converted into 1.5 billion liters of ethanol per year.     

Life cycle assessment of clinker production using refuse‐derived fuel: A case study using refuse‐derived fuel from Tehran municipal solid waste

One of the techniques used to dispose of 4,000 tons per day (TPD) of non‐recyclable waste from Tehran is to burn it as an alternative fuel in cement kilns. This practice reduces emissions from landfills, prevents the loss of waste energy, and conserves fossil fuel resources. The aim of our study was to conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) of clinker production in cement kilns using a combination of natural gas, mazut, a form of heavy, low‐quality fuel oil, and refuse‐derived fuel (RDF) from Tehran. We used SimaPro 7.1 software to perform an LCA of 1 kilogram (kg) of clinker produced using the following fuel combinations: the first scenario involved natural gas consumption alone, the second scenario involved a combination of natural gas and mazut, with the mazut providing 5% to 30% of the heating value needed to produce cement clinker in the kiln, and the third scenario involved a combination of natural gas and RDF (providing 5% to 30% of the heating needed in the kiln). The impact categories in the LCA of global warming, eutrophication, and acidification were assessed by the Center of Environmental Science of Leiden University (Centrum voor Milieukunde Leiden—CML) CML 2000 method. The results indicated that the third scenario, involving natural gas and RDF, reduced acidification by 2.14–11.5% and global warming by 0–1.3% relative to the first scenario involving the use of only natural gas. In addition, we observed a 0.65–3.81% reduction in acidification and a 0.9–3.8% reduction in global warming under the third scenario compared with the second scenario (co‐firing of natural gas and mazut). The amount of nitrogen oxides (NO_X) emitted from the combustion of the Tehran RDF was greater than that was emitted when burning mazut. Therefore, reduction of nitrogen from the RDF composition is necessary. This study indicates that the use of Tehran RDF (with reduced nitrogen) in Tehran cement kilns does not increase cement kiln NO_X, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions; however, we need to conduct additional investigation into the chemical composition of the Tehran waste before using solid waste in place of fossil fuels.     

Effects of alkali promoters on the textural and catalytic properties of mesoporous Fe–Al–Cu catalysts for water gas shift reaction

Mesoporous Fe₂O₃–Al₂O₃–CuO catalysts promoted with alkali oxides were synthesized and used in water gas shift reaction (WGSR) at high temperatures for hydrogen purification. These chromium-free catalysts were characterized using nitrogen adsorption/desorption, hydrogen temperature programmed reduction, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy techniques. The synthesized catalysts with narrow single-modal pore size distribution in mesopore region possessed high specific surface area. The catalytic results revealed that except Cs, the addition of other alkali promoters declined the catalytic activity. However, all catalysts showed higher catalytic performance than the conventional commercial catalyst. The results showed an optimum content of Cs promoter (3 wt.%) for the promoted Fe–Al–Cu catalyst (3 wt.% Cs-FAC), which exhibited the highest activity in WGSR at high temperature.