Scum Sludge From Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment Plant As Biodiesel Feedstock
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Date
2021-07-01
Authors
Gay, Benjamin
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Biodiesel fuel has gain consumers attention as a more sustainable alternative for
conventional non-renewable diesel fuel. Meanwhile, the management of floating scum on the
surface of the palm oil mill effluent (POME) wastewater treatment lagoon has been an issue.
In this study, the potential of using POME scum as biodiesel feedstock was investigated. The
scum was collected from Hilltop Palms Sdn. Bhd. wastewater treatment pond and stored in a
carboy container in a cold room. The characteristics of scum oil including viscosity, moisture
content and acid value were determined. The moisture content in the scum was removed by
oven drying at 105°C while the acid value was determined by titration of oil against potassium
hydroxide standard solution. Then, the scum-to-biodiesel was produced through in-situ
transesterification and the effects of operational parameters such as reaction time, catalyst
dosage and solvent volume were studied. From the characterization of POME scum, the
viscosity of the scum is negatively related to temperature, the average percentage of moisture
content removed is 0.05% and the acid value of scum was reduced to less than 2 mg KOH/g
oil through acid-catalysed esterification. The maximum scum-to-biodiesel yield percentage is
80.12% based on wet scum oil. The reaction condition for the maximum biodiesel yield
percentage is the reaction of 10g wet scum oil dissolved in 70mL of n-hexane solvent aided by
5%wt H2SO4 acid catalyst (based on scum oil weight) in 100mL methanol at a reaction
temperature of 60°C for 4 hours. From the FAMEs composition analysis, it was determined
that the major component found in the biodiesel produced is methyl palmitate and methyl oleate
which is also found in biodiesel produced from other vegetable oil. Therefore, POME scum
has the potential for biodiesel production.