Abstract

Colour and COD Removal from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Using Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Strain NCIM 5223 in Microbial Fuel Cell

Hassan Sh Abdirahman Elmi, Muhamad Hanif Md Nor and Zaharah Ibrahim

Palm oil industries are the largest agricultural based industries in Malaysia and in processing palm oil, high pollutant liquid waste known as palm oil mill effluent (POME) is being generated. Currently, treatment of POME to meet the standard discharge has become an important issue. Therefore, this study was conducted to treat final discharge POME in microbial fuel cell (MFC). Double chamber MFC fabricated using polyacrylic sheets with a working volume of 1 L, proton exchange membrane (Nafion 115) were used. The anodic solution consisted of final discharge pond POME, overnight Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain NCIM 5223 inoculum (10% v/v) and phosphate buffer (pH 7) while the cathodic solution consisted of phosphate buffer (pH 7) and potassium hexacyanoferrate (III). The results showed 58% of COD removal and 60% of colour removal in 8 days. In conclusion Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain NCIM 5223 was able to remove colour and COD from final pond POME.