Palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment-An assessment of coagulants used to aid liquid-solid separation

Abstract

A variety of coagulants was tested to assess their ability to destabilise the POME suspension and to flocculate the particulate matter. The conditions that would allow for optimal use of the respective chemicals were noted. There is currently little published information on the use of coagulants in POME treatment, with much of the information that is available being proprietary in nature. The test methods were deliberately made simple so that engineers in the field can use them without the need for sophisticated equipment. The synthetic polymers were found to be more effective than lime or alum. Excessively large quantities of the latter were required. This might affect the usefulness of the recovered solids in animal feed formulation and also lead to a sludge disposal problem. © 1987.