Utilization of palm oil mill effluent for polyhydroxyalkanoate production and nutrient removal using statistical design

• Main Authors: Md. Din, Mohd. Fadhil, Ponraj, Mohanadoss, Loosdrecht, Mark van, Ujang, Zaini, Chelliapan, Shreeshivadasan, Zambare, Vasudeo P.
• Format: Article
• Published: Center for Environmental and Energy Research and Studies 2014
• Subjects: T Technology
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/63196/; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13762-013-0253-9

The optimization for poly-β-hydroxyalkanoate production was carried out with nutrient removal efficiency for total organic carbon (TOC), phosphate, and nitrate from palm oil mill effluent waste. The experiment was conducted in a fabricated fed-batch reactor and the data obtained was analyzed using central composite rotatable design and factorial design for response surface methodology as a systematic approach for designing the experiment statistically to obtain valid results with minimum effort, time, and resources. The analysis of numerical optimization with propagation of error showed that 66 % of poly-β-hydroxyalkanoate production can be obtained with nutrient removal of TOC and nitrate by 19 and 3 %, respectively. However, phosphate removal efficiency was not found to be much effective. More over, the chemical oxygen demand: nitrogen phosphate (509 g/g N), chemical oxygen demand: phosphate (200 g/g P), air flow rate (0.59 L/min), substrate feeding rate (20 mL/min), and cycle length (20 h) were the optimized variables for maximum poly-β-hydroxyalkanoate production and nutrient removal.