Sustainable management of palm oil mills wastes in Malaysia: a case study of Sabah and Sarawak

• Main Author: Yahaya Saidu, Madaki
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: GE Environmental Sciences
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/10939/3/Sustainable%20Management%20of%20Palm%20Oil%20Mills%20Wastes%20In%20Malaysia%20%3B%20A%20Case%20Study%20of%20Sabah%20and%20Sarawak%20%28fulltext%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/10939/

Palm oil mills play an important role in the economic development of all countries involved in a large scale palm oil production. Despite obvious benefits of this industrial development, it is also one of the major sources of world environmental pollution and degradation. Many researches and developments have been carried out on zero-discharge technologies that will serves as an alternative for palm oil mills to achieve zero-discharge concepts to control environmental pollution. However, till to date most of the palm oil mills in Malaysia still discharged either partially treated or raw palm oil mill effluent (POME) into nearby rivers. Excessive quantities of either partially treated or untreated POME deplete a water body of its oxygen and suffocate aquatic life. In addition, vast amounts of biogas are generated during anaerobic digestion of POME. Biogas contains about 65% of methane (CH4), 35% of carbon dioxide (CO2) and trace amount of hydrogen sulphide (H2S). Biogas is corrosive to metal and possess bad odour while both CH4 and CO2 are greenhouse gases. On average around 58 million tons of POME is produce in Malaysia annually, and thus has been singled out as the chief contributor to Malaysia environmental pollution. This study examined and assessed wastes generated and method(s) of POME treatment used by palm oil mills. The study also attempts to develop a practical sustainable environmental management plan for palm oil mills that incorporate zero discharged technology to achieve zero discharge concepts.