Development of Bench-Scale Direct Contact Membrane Distillation System for Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent

Authors

  • C. Wan Yi Faculty of Civil Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Persiaran Tun Khalil Yaakob, 26300 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
  • N. Hwee Xin Faculty of Civil Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Persiaran Tun Khalil Yaakob, 26300 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
  • N. M. Mokhtar Faculty of Civil Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Persiaran Tun Khalil Yaakob, 26300 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11113/amst.v27n2.271

Keywords:

Membrane distillation, oil palm industry, POME, PVDF, wastewater treatment

Abstract

The oil palm industries generate large amounts of effluent that can cause pollution and, as a result, pose serious threats to the environment. Recently, membrane distillation (MD) has been identified as a potential candidate for treatment of palm oil mill effluents (POME). This is because the release of POME at high temperature may reduce the need to preheat the effluent prior to operation. The objective of this article is to manufacture a bench-scale MD system and assess the performance of the system in POME treatment. This project started with the design of a process and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) and continued with the fabrication part. Subsequently, the performance of the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system was tested using POME as a feed solution. Three different feed temperatures (55 °C, 65 °C and 75 °C) were analyzed during the testing. The results obtained show that the permeate flux increased with the increase of feed temperature with the highest flux is 10.76 kg/m2.hr. More than 85% of pollutants including ammonia nitrogen, color, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and turbidity were rejected. This shows that the system is capable of treating POME and producing high quality permeate water.

References

M. K. Alsebaeai, A. L. Ahmad. (2020). Membrane distillation: Progress in the improvement of dedicated membranes for enhanced hydrophobicity and desalination performance. J Ind Eng Chem., 86, 13-34.

N. A. S. Muhamad, N. M. Mokhtar, W. J. Lau, A. F. Ismail, R. Naim. (2022). Fouling studies on hydrophobic PVDF-bentonite hollow fiber membrane during membrane distillation of palm oil mill effluent. J Water Process Eng., 49, 102969.

H. Cho, Y. Choi, S. Lee. (2018). Effect of pretreatment and operating conditions on the performance of membrane distillation for the treatment of shale gas wastewater. Desalination, 437, 195-209.

K. E. Kadi, R. Hashaikeh, R. Ahmed, I. Janajreh. (2019). Design and performance evaluation of portable hybrid desalination unit using direct contact membrane distillation in dual configuration. Energy Procedia, 158, 904-910.

H. F. Juybari, H. B. Parmar, A. D. Alshubbar, K. L. Young, D. M. Warsinger. (2023). Porous condensers can double the efficiency of membrane distillation. Desalination, 545, 116129.

N. M. Mokhtar, W. J. Lau, A. F. Ismail, W. Youravong, W. Khongnakorn, K. Lertwittayanon. (2015). Performance evaluation of novel PVDF-Cloisite 15A hollow fiber composite membranes for treatment of effluents containing dyes and salts using membrane distillation. RSC Adv., 5, 38011-38020.

S. Kalla. (2021). Use of membrane distillation for oily wastewater treatment - A review. J Environ Chem Eng., 9, 104641.

X. Zhang, X. Liao, M. Shi, Y. Liao, A. G. Razaqpur, X. You. (2023). Guide to rational membrane selection for oily wastewater treatment by membrane distillation. Desalination, 549, 116323.

A. Hussain, A. Janson, J. M. Matar, S. Adham. (2022). Membrane distillation: recent technological developments and advancements in membrane materials. Emergent Mater., 5, 347-367.

P. López-Porfiri, S. Ramos-Paredes, P. Núñez, P. Gorgojo. (2023). Towards the technological maturity of membrane distillation: The MD module performance curve. NPJ Clean Water., 6, 18.

N. Kabay, M. M. A. Shirazi, E. Güler, M. Bryjak. (2022). Grand challenges in membrane modules and processes. Front Membr Sci Technol., 1, 913597.

N. A. S. Muhamad, N. M. Mokhtar, R. Naim, W. J. Lau, A. F. Ismail. (2019). A review of membrane distillation process: before, during and after testing. Int J Eng Technol Sci., 6, 62-81.

Y. Wu, Y. Kang, L. Zhang, D. Qu, X. Cheng, L. Feng. (2018). Performance and fouling mechanism of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) treating fermentation wastewater with high organic concentrations. J Environ Sci., 65, 253-261.

H. Julian, N. Nurgirisia, G. Qiu, Y. P. Ting, I. G. Wenten. (2020). Membrane distillation for wastewater treatment: Current trends, challenges and prospects of dense membrane distillation. J Water Process Eng., 46, 102615.

N. M. Mokhtar, N. A. S. Muhamad, W. J. Lau, A. F. Ismail, R. Naim. (2023). Comparative study on membrane distillation application between raw POME and POMSE. Mater Today: Proc., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2023.02.152.

V. R. Moreira, J. V. Raad, J. X. Lazarini, L. V. S. Santos, M. C. S. Amaral. (2023). Recent progress in membrane distillation configurations powered by renewable energy sources and waste heat. J Water Process Eng., 53, 103816.

T. Ahmad, T. Belwal, L. Li, S. Ramola, R. M. Aadil, Abdullah, Y. Xu, L. Zisheng. (2020). Utilization of wastewater from edible oil industry, turning waste into valuable products: A review. Trends Food Sci Technol., 99, 21-33.

N. H. Zainal, N. F. Jalani, R. Mamat, A. A. Astimar. (2017). A review on the development of palm oil mill effluent (POME) final discharge polishing treatments. J Oil Palm Res., 29(4), 528-540.

Z. S. Lee, S. Y. Chin, J. W. Lim, T. Witoon, C. K. Cheng. (2019). Treatment technologies of palm oil mill effluent (POME) and olive mill wastewater (OMW): A brief review. Environ Technol Innov., 15, 100377.

P. F. Rupani, P. S. Rajeev, M. H. Irahim, N. Esa. (2010). Review of current palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment methods: vermicomposting as a sustainable practice. World Appl Sci J., 11, 70-81.

N. M. Mokhtar, W. J. Lau, A. F. Ismail. (2015). Effect of feed temperature on the DCMD performances in treating synthetic textile wastewater. Adv Mater Res., 1113, 776-781.

N. M. Mokhtar, W. J. Lau, A. F. Ismail. (2015). Dye wastewater treatment by direct contact membrane distillation using polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fiber membranes. J Polym Eng., 35, 471-479.

N. M. Mokhtar, W. J. Lau, A. F. Ismail, B. C. Ng. (2014). Physicochemical study of polyvinylidene fluoride–Cloisite15A® composite membranes for membrane distillation application. RSC Adv., 4, 63367-63379.

D. Li, X. Xu, Z. Li, T. Wang, C. Wang. (2020). Detection methods of ammonia nitrogen in water: A review. TrAC Trends Anal Chem., 127, 115890.

S. S. Mahmod, M. S. Takriff, M. M. Al-Rajabi, P. M. Abdul, A. A. N. Gunny, H. Silvamany, J. M. Jahim. (2023). Water reclamation from palm oil mill effluent (POME): Recent technologies, by-product recovery, and challenges. J Water Process Eng., 52, 103488.

Downloads

Published

2023-07-24

How to Cite

Yi, C. W., Xin, N. H., & Mokhtar, N. M. (2023). Development of Bench-Scale Direct Contact Membrane Distillation System for Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent . Journal of Applied Membrane Science & Technology, 27(2), 103–113. https://doi.org/10.11113/amst.v27n2.271

Issue

Section

Articles