Authors: Mutiu Kolade Amosa Mohammed Saedi Jami Ma’an Fahmi R Alkhatib Thokozani Majozi
Publish Date: 2016/08/24
Volume: 23, Issue: 22, Pages: 22554-22567
Abstract
This study has applied the concept of the hybrid PACUF process in the treatment of the final effluent of the palm oil industry for reuse as feedwater for lowpressure boilers In a benchscale setup a lowcost empty fruit bunchbased powdered activated carbon PAC was employed for upstream adsorption of biotreated palm oil mill effluent BPOME with the process conditions 60 g/L dose of PAC 68 min of mixing time and 200 rpm of mixing speed to reduce the feedwater strength alleviate probable fouling of the membranes and thus improve the process flux productivity Three polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membranes of molecular weight cutoff MWCO of 1 5 and 10 kDa were investigated in a crossflow filtration mode and under constant transmembrane pressures of 40 80 and 120 kPa The permeate qualities of the hybrid processes were evaluated and it was found that the integrated process with the 1 kDa MWCO UF membrane yielded the best water quality that falls within the US EPA reuse standard for boilerfeed and cooling water It was also observed that the permeate quality is fit for extended reuse as process water in the cement petroleum and coal industries In addition the hybrid system’s operation consumed 3713 Wh m−3 of energy at the highest applied pressure of 120 kPa which is far lesser than the typical energy requirement range 08–10 kWh m−3 for such wastewater reclamationThis work was jointly supported by the research grants from the Ministry of Higher Education MOHE Malaysia FRGS 110300178 FRGS 130290270 and International Islamic University Malaysia EDW B123760854 The authors acknowledge the insightful contributions of late Professor Suleyman Aremu Muyibi Also the assistance of Dr Sharafudeen Kareem on language editing is duly acknowledged
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