Affiliations 

  • 1 Division of Environmental Bio-Adaptation, Department of Biological Functions Engineering, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan; Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Laboratory of Biopolymer and Derivatives, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: mohdrafein@upm.edu.my
  • 3 Division of Environmental Bio-Adaptation, Department of Biological Functions Engineering, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu-ku, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan
  • 4 Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Sci Total Environ, 2020 Mar 25;710:136277.
PMID: 31923663 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136277

Abstract

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) contains complex and highly biodegradable organic matters so discharging it without appropriate treatment may lead to environmental problems. POME final discharge quality is normally determined based on conventional chemical detection such as by biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The novelty of the present study is that the toxicity effects of the POME final discharge samples were evaluated based on whole effluent toxicity (WET) and toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) tests using Daphnia magna. The toxicity unit (TU) values were recorded to be in the range from TU = 1.1-11 obtained from WET, and the TIE manipulation tests suggested that a substantial amount of toxic compounds was contained in the POME final discharge. Phenol, 2,6-bis (1,1-dimethylethyl)- and heavy metals such as Cu and Zn were detected in all the effluents and were recognized as being the main toxicants in the POME final discharge. GC/MS analyses also successfully identified cyclic volatile methyl siloxanes; cyclotetrasiloxane, octamethyl- (D4), cyclopentasiloxane, decamethyl- (D5), cyclohexasiloxane, dodecamethyl- (D6). D4 was detected at 0.0148-0.0357 mg/L, which could be potentially toxic. The palm oil industry used only water in the form of steam to process the fruits, and the presence of these compounds might be derived from the detergents and grease used in palm oil mill cleaning and maintenance operations. An appropriate treatment process is thus required to eliminate these toxicants from the POME final discharge. It is recommended that two approaches, chemical-based monitoring as well as biological toxicity-based monitoring, should be utilized for achieving an acceptable quality of POME final discharge in the future.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.