Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Teknologi MARA
  • 2 Malaysian Palm Oil Board
MyJurnal

Abstract

Electrocoagulation has proven to be an effective method in the treatment of wastewater. This study evaluated the decolourisation of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) using electrocoagulation (EC) batch reactor by utilising aluminium as sacrificial electrode. POME sample source from a final discharged pond at a palm oil mill was characterised for its colour, chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, conductivity and turbidity; were found to be 2707 PtCo, 3909 mg/L, 7.63, 12.82 mS/cm and 755 NTU respectively. The respective effects of operating parameters such as pH (3 to 11), applied voltage (5 V to 20 V), plate gap (7.5 to 11.5 cm) and operating time (1 to 8 hours) were investigated. The decolourisation of POME was observed to increase with increasing voltage and operating time. Highest removal efficiency was observed at pH 5, 20 V applied voltage, 9.5 cm plate gap and at 8-hour operating time with colour removal efficiency of 89, 79, 78 and 64% respectively. From the findings, it can be concluded that electrocoagulation process using aluminium electrodes is a reliable technique for the removal of colour from POME.