Phytoremediation of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Using Eichhornia crassipes

Abstract

It is inevitable that the manufacturing process of palm oil is accompanied by the generation of a massive amount of high strength wastewater, namely palm oil mill effluent (POME), which could pose serious threat to the aquatic environment. POME which contains high organic compounds originating from biodegradable materials causes water pollution if not properly managed. Palm oil industries are facing the challenges to make ends meet in the aspects of natural assurance, financial reasonability and development sustainability. It is therefore crucial to seek a practical solution to achieve the goal of environmental protection while continuing the economic sustainability. Phytoremediation has been proven as a potential method for removal or degradation of various hazardous contaminants. However, research on phytoremediation of POME using Eichhornia crassipes (E. crassipes) is still limited. This study aims to determine the feasibility of applying phytoremediation technique using E. crassipes for POME treatment. The effects of pH, plant:POME ratio and retention time on the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solid (TSS) of POME were investigated. The highest BOD removal of 92.6% was achieved after 21 days retention time at pH 4 with plant:POME ratio of 1:20 kg/L. The highest COD removal of 20.7% was achieved after 14 days retention time at pH 6 with plant:POME ratio of 1:20 kg/L. Phytoremediation using E. crassipes was shown to be a promising eco-friendly technique for POME treatment, and is therefore recommended as a good alternative treatment solution for this industrial effluent.

An experimental investigation on phytoremediation performance of water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes L.) for pollutants removal from paper mill effluent

“…Microbes such as bacteria are accountable for decaying biological matter (Farhadkhani et al, 2018). The present study was confirmed by Wei (2019) who reported efficient removal of BOD (92.78%) in the phytotreatment of palm oil mill wastewater for 21 days of holding time using water hyacinth. The COD examination is frequently used in combination with the BOD test to assess the quantity of nonbiodegradable organic material in the wastewater.…”

The Multifaceted Function of Water Hyacinth in Maintaining Environmental Sustainability and the Underlying Mechanisms: A Mini Review

“…WH was employed to repair cyanide pollution in the waste water of a steel factory, and the result showed 95% was removed within 3 d [ 82 ]. Moreover, WH has also been reported to repair the soil pollution of oil and palm oil plants containing palm oil plants [ 63 , 64 ].…”

Degradation rate of palm oil mill effluent in bucket fish cultivation

“…Banyaknya cairan yang dihasilkan terutama berasal dari proses sterilisasi, klarifikasi, proses hydrocyclone untuk pemisahan kulit dan inti sawit (Wei et al, 2019). Apabila tidak dikelola secara baik, limbah cair kelapa sawit berpotensi menimbulkan efek negatif terhadap komunitas fitoplankton di perairan.…”

“…Saat ini, telah banyak penelitian fitoremediasi LCKS yang telah dilaporkan. Beberapa tumbuhan yang telah diteliti mampu meremediasi LCKS adalah Scirpus grossus (Sa'at et al, 2022), Cyperus alternifolius (Sa'at et al, 2019), Eichhornia crassipes (Wei et al, 2019) dan Ipomoea aquatica atau dikenal dengan kangkung air (Zulfahmi et al, 2021).…”