Raw palm oil mill effluent (POME) contains high amount of organic materials and residual oil that will impose high biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). It has a high acidic value, high total suspended solids (TSS) and is dark brownish in colour. Raw POME is a highly polluting wastewater and as such, it cannot be freely and/or directly discharged into any source of water or river without prior proper treatment. The treatment of raw POME is an important issue in palm oil mills and the method of treatment has attracted many researchers and non-governmental organisation (NGO) associated with environmental pollution. Owing to the more stringent effluent environmental regulations by the Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia, research interest has recently shifted to the development of sustainable effluent polishing technologies. Therefore, it is perhaps worthwhile to look into a new viable and sustainable technology such as utilisation of renewable oil palm biomass as bio-adsorbents. This article reviews the development of polishing treatments for POME final discharge and further discusses the application of palm-based activated carbon for the treatment system. In conclusion, the integration system of conventional POME treatment with bio-adsorbents could be considered as a sustainable approach, thus solving environmental problems of waste disposal and pollution control for the oil palm industry.

A double insulated carbonisation-activation reactor was developed in order to produce activated carbon with high yield and surface area. This reactor was double insulated using low cement castable and covered around the internal space of the reactor with stainless steel plated and fibre glass jacketed heat insulation layer, which allow efficient heat transfer into the bed of material in the reactor. The carbonisation of oil palm kernel shell (OPKS) at 400 °C, followed by steam activation at 500-1000 °C continuously in the same reactor, with steam flow rate of 12.80-18.17 L/min had improved the activated carbon surface area from 305 ± 10.2 m2/g to 935 ± 36.7 m2/g and gave a high yield of 30% within 7 h retention time with a low gaseous emission. The activated carbon produced was successfully applied as bioadsorbent for the treatment of POME final discharge with the reduction of TSS, COD, colour and BOD up to 90%, 68%, 97% and 83%, respectively which met the standard set by Department of Environment Malaysia (DOE).

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The aim of this work was to study the physical and chemical properties of different oil palm wastes, viz. empty fruit bunch (EFB), oil palm frond (OPF) and oil palm trunk (OPT). A study (84 days duration) was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of an exotic earthworm species (epigeic-African Nightcrawler (Eudrilus euginae)) for the decomposition of different types of oil palm wastes (EFB, OPT and OPF) into valuable vermicompost. The decrease in earthworm's biomass gain for EFB, OPT and OPF may be due to exhaustion of worm feed in vermicomposters. The percentage of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium in vermicompost was found to increase while pH and total organic carbon declined as a function of the vermicomposting period. The vermicompost obtained showed an increase in heavy metal content for all the reactors, but levels were still in the range of nutrient in the vermicompost. The data reveal that vermicomposting (using African Nightcrawler) is a suitable technology for the decomposition of oil palm wastes, especially EFB into value-added material.