SUSTAINABLE BIOENERGY AND FEED PRODUCTIONS FROM PALM OIL MILL EFFLUENT

Abstract

Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) is waste water from Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) processing in palm oil industries and about 0.6 tones of POME is produced from 1 ton of processed FFB. POME has high content of COD and BOD concentrations but it also nutrient such as Nitrogen, Phosphor, Kalium and other mineral which may important for microalgae photosynthetic to produce biomass. This waste water is currently being treated in a system of anaerobic and aerobic ponds. Ponding system is able to reduce COD concentration from 50000 mg/L to 1500 mg/L, BOD from 25000 mg/L to 680 mg/L. This research is aimed to utilize POME as medium for microalgae growth since microalgae needs N,P and K for their photosynthetic and for production of biomass. Microalgae are micro-species that commonly used for production of biodiesel, food, feed and pharmaceuticals. Besides nutrient, microalgae requires carbon source for their growth, and this research describes the potential of flue gas (contain of 15-20% CO2) and biogas (40-60% CO2) as carbon sources. High amount of COD is used for biogas production ( 1 ton of POME producing 20-25 m3 ton biogas) while high amount of nutrient (N and P) is used for microalgae (Spirulina) growth to produce protein as food supplement. This process is well known as integrated process of microalgae biofixation and waste water treatment. Keywords: Microalgae, Spirulina, bioenergy, protein, Palm Oil Mill Effluent