Performance of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) as Biodiesel Source Based on Different Ponds

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to prove that waste palm oil industry (POME) can be used as raw material (source of energy) for biodiesel. In the production process, palm oil mill produced large amounts of waste. The provision of a shelter pond system is a temporary solution from palm oil mill to relocate the liquid waste. With BOD content with range 25,625 to 39,616.7 mg/l and COD content with range 117,333.3 to 146,333.3 mg/l, this condition will generate a serious problem for environmental pollution. Therefore, it is important to test the characteristics of waste oil from each pond. The hexane solvent extraction method is used to separate the oil from the liquid waste. The first pond contains 51.3% water, 21% oil, 2% sludge & sediment and 5.6% free fatty acids. The second pond contains 86.7% water, 16.1% oil, 2.4% sludge & sediment and 8% free fatty acids. The third pond contains 74% water, 6.8% oil, 3.1% sludge & sediment and 12.2% free fatty acid and the fourth pond contains 78.7% water, 3.7% oil, 2% sludge & sediment and 13.3% free fatty acids. Based on the results of this research, the characteristics of POME and its oil losses are the fraction of oil wasted from Crude Palm Oil (CPO) processing, whereas CPO has characteristics as a raw material for Biodiesel. POME should be processed into biodiesel since the liquid waste is discarded from palm oil mill, so there is no need a big land to make waste storage ponds.