Column Study for Removal of Colour from Palm Oil Mill Effluent using Wastewater Sludge Carbon

• Main Author: BINTI MOHD NAZRIN , ALIAA ATHIRAH
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2018
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/18115/1/1.%20FINAL%20DISSERTATION_19621.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/18115/

Palm oil mill industry in Malaysia has been growing rapidly and the effluent has been concerning to the environment since it has brownish colour that will be later discharged to receiving water bodies. Furthermore, the production of wastewater sludge is expected to increase due to high number of population and it has carbonaceous properties that make an excellent quality of an adsorbent. The removal of colour from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) using carbon derived from wastewater sludge was investigated using fixed bed column study with different bed depth of 5, 10 and 15 cm and using varying flow rate of 25, 50 and 100 mL/hr. The removal of colour was the highest by using higher volume of bed depth and slower flow rate. The Adams-Bohart model and Yoon-Nelson kinetic models were used to analyze the column performance. The rate constant for Adams Bohart model decreases with the increment of bed depth. Adsorption capacity for the adsorption of colour obtained from Adams-Bohart model ranged from 2676.19 mg/L up to 8938.78 mg/L. The maximum adsorption capacity increase with smaller bed depth. For Yoon-Nelson model, the rate constant decrease with increase in bed depth. The time required for 50% breakthrough obtained from the model ranged from 17.01 mins up to 104.17 mins for all three bed depth tested. The time has increases with increase in bed depth. The experimental data was found to be best described using both models as it shows high range of R 2 value.