Drinking water reclamation from palm oil mill effluent (POME) using membrane technology

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is the largest pollutant discharged into the rivers of Malaysia. POME is a brownish liquid waste and has high turbidity, color, chemical oxygen demand, oil and grease resulting from high organic matter content and suspended solids. The removal of these pollutants is required in reclaiming the drinking water from POME. Membrane technology (ultrafiltration and reverses osmosis) coupled with coagulation/flocculation as pretreatment was used to reclaim drinking water from POME. The analyses of the reclaimed water shows that the water quality complied with the drinking water standard set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The performance of the membranes with coagulation/flocculation showed great potential to reclaim drinking water from POME with 78% water recovery. The present studies with chemical cleaning show that membrane fouling was reversible and primarily due to cake formation.