Journal of Cleaner Production 182 (2018) 830e837

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Reduction of POME final discharge residual using activated

bioadsorbent from oil palm kernel shell
Nahrul Hayawin Zainal a, b, Astimar Abdul Aziz b, Juferi Idris c, d, Nor Faizah Jalani b,
Ropandi Mamat b, Mohamad Faizal Ibrahim a, Mohd Ali Hassan a, Suraini Abd-Aziz a, *
a
Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
b
Biomass Technology Unit, Engineering & Processing Division, Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), No.6, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, 43000
Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
c
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Sarawak Branch, Samarahan Campus, 94300, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
d
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A double insulated carbonisation-activation reactor was developed in order to produce activated carbon
Received 31 October 2017 with high yield and surface area. This reactor was double insulated using low cement castable and
Received in revised form covered around the internal space of the reactor with stainless steel plated and fibre glass jacketed heat
8 February 2018
insulation layer, which allow efficient heat transfer into the bed of material in the reactor. The carbon-
Accepted 11 February 2018
isation of oil palm kernel shell (OPKS) at 400
C, followed by steam activation at 500e1000
C contin-
Available online 12 February 2018
uously in the same reactor, with steam flow rate of 12.80e18.17 L/min had improved the activated carbon
surface area from 305 ± 10.2 m2/g to 935 ± 36.7 m2/g and gave a high yield of 30% within 7 h retention
Keywords:
Carbonisation-activation
time with a low gaseous emission. The activated carbon produced was successfully applied as bio-
Oil palm kernel shell adsorbent for the treatment of POME final discharge with the reduction of TSS, COD, colour and BOD up
Activated carbon to 90%, 68%, 97% and 83%, respectively which met the standard set by Department of Environment
Steam Malaysia (DOE).
Bioadsorbent © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Activated carbons are demanded in many industrial applications
such as water purification media, pollutant-gas adsorbent and
catalyst support (Cermakova et al., 2017; Li et al., 2017). This
carbonaceous material known due to its large internal surface area
and highly developed pore structure and can be produced from
various types of raw materials. The traditional feedstock materials
for activated carbon production are from coals, wood, peat and
lignite. These materials are very expensive, non-renewable and
therefore the production showed a decreasing trend (Liu et al.,
2016; Llado  et al., 2016). Recently, many researchers start
focusing on the production of activated carbon from agricultural
residues such as bamboo, coconut shell, nut shell, rice husk and
sawdust due to its low-cost materials, abundantly available and
sustainable, thus it become as an alternative solution to agricultural
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: suraini@upm.edu.my (S. Abd-Aziz).
waste and management (Hidayu and Muda, 2016; Mazlan et al.,
2016).
Since Malaysia is the second leading of palm oil producer after
Indonesia, this industry generates about 20 million metric ton of
crude palm oil (CPO) in 2016 with 49 million m3/year of palm oil
mill effluent (POME) and producing tremendously abundance oil
palm biomass such as empty fruit bunch (EFB) (20.08 ton/ha), oil
palm trunk (OPT) (74.48 ton/ha), oil palm frond (OPF) (14.47 ton/
ha) and oil palm kernel shell (OPKS) (1.10 ton/ha) during pruning,
replanting and oil processing by palm oil mill (Awalludin et al.,
2015; Samiran et al., 2016). POME contains high amount of bio-
logical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD),
total suspended solids (TSS), high pH (value) and dark brownish
colour (Nor Faizah et al., 2016). POME is highly polluting waste-
water if discharged directly into the river without a proper treat-
ment (Mohammed and Chong, 2014). The treatment of POME is an
important issue by palm oil mills and the method of treatment has
gained interest by many researchers. To this concern, adsorption
process using activated carbon produced from agricultural wastes
showed the most efficient adsorption capability for the treatment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.110
0959-6526/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 N.H. Zainal et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 182 (2018) 830e837
Abbreviations
BOD Biological oxygen demand
CHNS Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and Sulphur
COD Chemical oxygen demand
CPO Crude palm oil
DOE Department of Environment Malaysia
EFB Empty fruit bunch
HHV Higher heating value
DO Dissolved oxygen
OPF Oil palm frond
OPKS Oil palm kernel shell
OPT Oil palm trunk
PM10 Particulate matter below 10 mm
POME Palm oil mill effluent
TSS Total suspended solids
of POME due to its effectiveness to adsorb colour and reduce the
concentration of pollutant from the wastewater (Ibrahim et al.,
2017; Nor Faizah et al., 2016). In addition to that, the OPKS
biomass which has high density, high carbon and low ash content
showed suitable characteristics to be used as feedstock for activated
carbon production (Jia and Lua, 2008). Since it is abundantly pro-
duce in the palm oil mill, utilisation of this biomass could reduce
the production cost of raw materials and add value to the palm oil
industry.
Activated carbon is commonly produced through carbonisation
followed by activation process in two separate reactors (Arami-Niya
et al., 2011; Hoseinzadeh Hesas et al., 2013). For the carbonisation
step, feedstock materials are carbonised into carbon-rich material
(char) in the absence of oxygen at a moderate temperature of
800
C, meanwhile in the activation step, the chars produced are
activated using mainly physical activation such as carbon dioxide
and steam at a higher temperature of 900e1000
C to produce
activated carbon with high surface area and high porosity (Nasri
et al., 2014; Pietrzak et al., 2013). These two-steps or separate
processes of carbonisation and activation contribute to energy and
time consumption, cost for materials and apparatus, and low yield
of activated carbon produced (Rashidi et al., 2014). Although many
studies on separate process had reported high surface area of
activated carbon generated with low retention time of the activa-
tion process, their process also involve in the utilisation of chemical
as activating agent that may contribute to a secondary waste
disposal problem (Shoaib and Al-Swaidan, 2015).
Therefore, the carbonisation-activation system was designed to
enable the activation stage to be continuously conducted after
carbonisation without stopping the operation. This design makes
the feeding of the substrate and uploading of the activated carbon
from the reactor easier as compared to conventional reactor
(Hoseinzadeh Hesas et al., 2013). This process also could reduce the
production cost, energy and time without compromising on the
yield and quality of the activated carbon produced, while at the
same time avoiding the involvement of chemical agent in the
process. In this present study, carbonisation-activation system has
been built using double insulated to allow efficient heat transfer
into the bed of material in order to produce high surface area and
maintain high yield, at low retention time, thus will give a good
prospect towards the palm oil industry. Then, the activated carbon
produced was characterised and tested as bioadsorbent to treat the
POME final discharge.
831
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sample preparation
OPKS obtained from Jugra Palm Oil Mill, Banting, Selangor,
Malaysia with particle sizes ranging from 6 to 15 mm were sun-
dried until the moisture content reached below 10% prior to car-
bonisation and activation process (Nahrul Hayawin et al., 2017). The
POME was collected in plastic bottle containers from the final
discharge pond in the same mill and the containers were stored in
refrigerator at 4
C for samples preservation. Initial concentration of
COD, TSS, BOD, colour and pH of POME final discharge were
determined.
2.2. Experimental set up
A double insulated carbonisation-activation system was
designed for activated carbon production from OPKS in large scale
study. Fig. 1 shows the main components of the reactor system:
steam generator, nitrogen cylinder, control panel, thermocouple,
diesel tank, storage tank, vinegar collecting tank, burner diesel,
carbonisation and activation reactor, water tank and chimney. The
reactor is a rectangular stainless steel chamber heated by com-
bustion of diesel using a burner. The heat output for burner diesel is
95/213 kW with 8/18 kg/h and maximum viscosity at 20
C.
Maximum electric power consumption is 320 W and 50 Hz electric
supply. The reactor equipped with a steam generator to produce
steam at 170
C during activation process. The steam generator has
a capacity of 9 lbs/h and pressure at 100 psig. Operating pressure is
at 80 psig 5.5/bar to produce saturated steam.
The reactor and overall system had been designed to meet the
large scale study. The double insulated reactor of carbonisation-
activation system was made using low cement castable with
organic fibre of alkaline resistance covered with stainless steel
plated of 10 mm thickness that could provide maximum service
temperature up to 1400
C (Fig. 2). There is 100 mm fibre glass
jacketed heat insulation layer round inside the reactor. The reactor
has a rectangular cross-sectional groove, positioned symmetrically
at the bottom part of the reactor, which allows efficient heat
transfer into the bed of material in it.
In order to load the reactor, the stainless steel door was opened
using reactor handle. Then, 3 kg of OPKS was loaded into the reactor
chamber. The stainless steel door was screwed down tightly and the
carbonisation process was started by purging the reactor with ni-
trogen gas into to remove air before heated to an optimum car-
bonisation temperature of 400
C for 3 h to produce carbonised
products (chars). After carbonisation was completed, the activation
process was performed in the same reactor by purging steam at
temperatures of 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1000
C for 4 h under
air-free conditions. The steam flow rate measured in the perforated
pipe was in the range of 12.80e18.17 L/min. The inlet steam was cut
off after the activation process was completed. Then, the reaction
system was cooled to a temperature <100
C using a blower and the
activated carbon produced was out loaded and collected for further
analysis.
2.3. Analysis
2.3.1. Chemical characterisation
The moisture content, volatile matter, fixed carbon, ash content,
carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur (CHNS) analysis, higher
heating value (HHV) analysis and gaseous emission were analysed
according to Nahrul Hayawin et al. (2017). The mass yield and
832 N.H. Zainal et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 182 (2018) 830e837

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram showing overall system and the main components of the double insulated carbonisation-activation system.

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the double insulated carbonisation-activation system showing the double insulated of the internal layer and combustion process.

energy yield was calculated using Equation (1) and Equation (2): Energy yield ¼ Mass yield  (HHVout/HHVin) (2)

Mass yield ¼ (Mass activated carbon/Mass biomass) (1) where, HHVout (MJ/kg) is the highest heating value of activated
 N.H. Zainal et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 182 (2018) 830e837
carbon and HHVin (MJ/kg) is the highest heating value of biomass.
COD measurement was carried based on APHA Standard
method 8000 using the colorimetric method. A 2 ml of sample was
added into a COD vial (HR 20e1500 mg/L) and digested for 2 h
using a HACH digester (DRB200, Loveland, CO). The COD concen-
tration was then measured using a HACH spectrophotometer
(DR890, Loveland, CO). Total suspended solids (TSS) were measured
following the APHA Standard method 8006 using a HACH spec-
trophotometer (DR 2800, Loveland, CO) by placing 10 ml of sample
in a specially designed square quartz sample cell. The colour
analysis was carried out following platinum-cobalt standard
method 8025 and the colour was detected at a wavelength of
455 nm using a HACH spectrophotometer (DR 2800, Loveland, CO)
by placing 10 ml of sample in the same previous sample cell. The
BOD tests were carried out using APHA Standard method using a
dissolved oxygen (DO) probe (YSI model 5100, USA). Seeds and
nutrient buffer pillows were added to the samples (1.5e3.5 ml).
Samples were diluted 15  followed by aeration to make sure
enough DO will remain after 3 days of incubation. A 300 ml of
standard BOD bottles were used in these tests which were incu-
bated at 30
C for 3 days in a dark incubator (Memmert Model
IN110- Germany). After 3 days, the differences in oxygen con-
sumption were measured using a DO meter (YSI model 5100, USA)
to estimate BOD3.
2.3.2. Surface area analysis (BET)
The surface area of activated carbon (ASAP2020 Micromeritics,
New York, USA) were analysed by nitrogen adsorption/desorption
at 196
C to determine its specific surface area. The surface area
was deliberate from the isotherms formula using density functional
theory (Lastoskie et al., 1993).
2.3.3. Bioadsorbent determination
The activated carbon sample was used as a bioadsorbent for the
treatment of POME final discharge. Activated carbon sample was
rinsed to remove any dirt, dried at 105
C in oven, ground and
sieved and then kept in sample bottles for bioadsorbent analysis.
The bioadsorbent study was performed by agitation at 150 rpm
ranging from 0 h, 2 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h, 30 h and 36 h using digital
orbital shaker test equipment with temperature of 30
C at an
initial pH of 9 (Heidolph unimax 1010, Germany). Different bio-
adsorbent dosages were prepared ranging from 0 g/L, 10 g/L, 20 g/L,
40 g/L, 80 g/L to 120 g/L and were added into 100 mL of POME final
discharge. Samples were taken out from each of the shaker flasks at
set time intervals. Filtrates were collected and centrifuge for
5 min at 3000 rpm and the supernatant was collected for BOD, COD,
TSS and colour analysis. All the experiments were conducted for
triplicate. The percentage of removal (% R) of each parameter was
calculated based on the following equation:
% R ¼ {(Ci  Cf) / Ci}  100
where, Ci is the initial concentration of the POME final discharge
and Cf is the POME final discharge at any time (mg/L).
2.3.4. Morphological analysis
Scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy
dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) Hitachi SN-3400 was
used to examine the particle surface morphology of activated car-
bon, bioadsorbent pores before and after the adsorption treat-
ments. All the samples were in powder form and coated with a thin
film of silver before being observed with the SEM.
833
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Activated carbon properties
Proximate analysis of raw OPKS showed that this material
contains 18.84% fixed carbon, 53.38% volatile matter, 0.87% ash
content and 9.55% moisture content. The ultimate analysis, ligno-
cellulosic composition and HHV has been reported in our previous
study (Nahrul Hayawin et al., 2017). Volatile matter, ash, fixed
carbon and moisture contents together with HHV value in OPKS are
the most important parameters for the production of biofuel and
bioenergy (Jahirul et al., 2012). The low moisture, ash and volatile
matter contents with high value of fixed carbon content are the
good criteria for biochar and activated carbon production (Tan et al.,
2017).
Beside of being double insulated for better heat transfer, the
uniqueness of this carbonisation-activation system is on the heat-
ing method using a diesel burner that allows us to control the
temperature variation in the range of 50e1200
C. The properties of
activated carbon at different activation temperatures are presented
in Table 1. The results showed that there were significant differ-
ences in the activated carbon properties at different activation
temperatures. The fixed carbon increased when activation tem-
perature has been increased from 200 to 500
C, mainly due to the
thermal decomposition of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in
OPKS (Chen et al., 2016). Cellulose is thermally degraded at the
temperatures between 270 and 325
C, meanwhile lignin is ther-
mally degraded at temperature >400
C (Fuwape, 1996), thus
accumulating the fixed carbon contain. The remaining volatile
matter in activated carbon decreased when the temperatures were
increased from 500 to 1000
C. A high amount of volatile matter
was released during activation process due to a high temperature
value. It was observed that a higher volatile matter content (12.78%)
of activated carbon produced at 500
C of activation temperature as
compared to the other temperatures, due to a low decomposition of
volatile extractive components and hemicellulose in the OPKS
(Chen et al., 2016). Meanwhile, increasing the activation tempera-
ture had raised the HHV of the activated carbon produced. How-
ever, activation temperature of >900
C showed a reduction of the
surface area that might be due to the melting of the ash content into
tar, which then accumulated and blocked some of the formed pores
(Chen et al., 2012).
In comparison with other activated carbon, the improvement of
carbonisation-activation of OPKS showed significantly higher sur-
face area as compared to previous study and other reported data
that used oil palm biomass as feedstock material (Table 2). More
importantly, Table 2 clearly shows that the surface area had
increased rapidly with the increase of the activation temperature to
reach a maximum value of 935e987 m2/g at 900
C. Interestingly,
the activation process conducted in this present study used steam
as an activating agent that provides more environmental and clean
process as compared to chemical activating agent. Besides, physical
(3) activation using steam can produce activated carbon with well-
developed pore structure and better physical strength as
compared to chemical activation process (Lim et al., 2010; Yang
et al., 2010). Based on our previous work, carbonisation at 500
C
and activation at 700
C for 6 h in a small scale study showed that
the surface area obtained was 305.67 m2/g with activated carbon
yield of 32% (unpublished data). Beside improvement of the surface
area, shorten the retention time and reduce number of steps by
combining activation-carbonisation process in a single reactor, the
developed carbonisation-activation system also generated a com-
parable yield (30%) as compared to our previous work and other
reported studies.
Fig. 3 illustrates the experimental results for mass and energy
834 N.H. Zainal et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 182 (2018) 830e837

Table 1
Properties of OPKS activated carbon obtained at different temperatures.

Temp (
C) Proximate analysis Ultimate analysis Surface area (m2/g) HHV (MJ/kg)

Volatile (%) Fix C (%) Ash (%) C (%) N (%) H (%)

500 11.50 ± 2.80 75.30 ± 2.11 8.32 ± 1.30 61.73 ± 4.00 0.38 ± 0.04 2.00 ± 0.21 217.19 ± 11.00 21.70 ± 0.25
600 7.61 ± 3.50 82.49 ± 1.62 7.92 ± 2.28 70.53 ± 2.56 0.55 ± 0.58 2.12 ± 0.07 372.93 ± 24.60 26.92 ± 0.48
700 3.82 ± 2.19 81.72 ± 4.70 6.13 ± 1.00 71.15 ± 3.90 0.49 ± 0.01 2.58 ± 0.28 501.65 ± 15.28 27.00 ± 0.38
800 2.08 ± 4.01 87.90 ± 3.73 9.35 ± 0.78 78.10 ± 1.32 0.78 ± 0.35 2.25 ± 0.05 678.26 ± 18.50 29.60 ± 0.77
900 1.57 ± 3.02 89.34 ± 4.13 6.60 ± 0.83 84.77 ± 3.78 1.14 ± 0.04 1.99 ± 0.04 961.16 ± 9.10 29.95 ± 0.66
1000 1.51 ± 2.00 89.35 ± 3.71 5.72 ± 1.15 81.41 ± 3.50 0.47 ± 0.05 2.03 ± 0.02 441.40 ± 15.07 30.13 ± 0.48

Table 2
Characteristics of activated carbon produced from oil palm biomass.

Type of biomass Carbonisation Activation Type of reactor Retention time Yield Surface area (m2/ References
conditions conditions (min) (%) g)

Oil palm mesocarp 600
C/0.5 h 600
C/0.5 h Furnace 60 e 494 (Ibrahim et al., 2017)
fiber
Oil palm kernel shell 300
C/0.5 h

800 C/1 h Tube furnace 90 22.00 584 (Hidayu and Muda,
2016)
Date palm seed 800
C/2 h 800-1000
C/2 h Tubular furnace 240 28.00 666 (Reddy et al., 2012)
Oil palm trunk 500
C/3 h 500
C/3 h Quartz hori-zontal tubular 480 <20 1800 (Hussein et al., 2001)
reactor
Oil palm kernel shell 400
C/3 h 900
C/4 h Carbonisation-activation 420 30.00 935e987 This study

energy yield (Di Blasi, 2008). At an activation temperature of

1000
C, the energy yield decreased rapidly together with the mass
yield possibly due to a high HHV of OPKS activated carbon.
Ambient air monitoring was conducted during the
carbonisation-activation process to monitor the gases and particle
emission during the production of activated carbon. Results in
Table 3 showed that carbon monoxide concentration in ambient air
(8.98 mg/m3) is lower than the limit stipulated under the Malaysian
Ambient Air Quality Standards (2015). However, the particulate
matter below 10 mm (PM10) was 55 mg/m3 which was slightly
exceeded the latest updated required limit of <50 mg/m3. There are
no limit standards set for CO2, H2, CH4 and C2þ. The smoke release
during carbonisation-activation process was transported to a
condensation unit before discharge through the chimney as a clean
emission. Condensed gases were then collected as a pyroligneous
acid. It can be concluded that all the gaseous pollutant concentra-
tions were at levels below the detection limits excluding PM10.

3.2. Activated carbon as a bioadsorbent for treatment of final

Fig. 3. Mass and energy yields of OPKS activated carbon using carbonisation-activation
discharge POME
system.

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the OPKS activated

yield of activated carbon produced. The increase on activation
temperature leads to a significant decrease of mass yield to an
average of 37.50%. The decreasing trend observed in this study is
almost consistent with the reported experiments (Buah and Kuma,
2016). Longer residence times also resulted in more complete car-
bonisation and activation process resulted in a lower mass and
carbon produced in this present study as a bioadsorbent, an
experiment to adsorb pollutants of palm oil mill effluent (POME)
final discharge was conducted. The properties of POME final
discharge that content high amount of TSS (240 mg/L), COD
(600 mg/L), BOD (120 mg/L) and colour (3700 ADMI (American Dye
Manufacturer's Unit)). Besides, POME final discharge has an alka-
line pH that will pollute the water if it is discharged directly into the

Table 3
Ambient air quality conducted during carbonisation-activation process of OPKS, and comparison with other study.

Parameter Carbonisation-activation system (Chen et al., 2016) Malaysian Ambient Air Quality Standards (2015)

Carbon monoxide (CO) (mg/m3) 8.98 <30 10

Carbon dioxide (CO2) (mg/m3) 16.32 <65 e
Hydrogen (H2) (mg/m3) 31.39 <20 e
Methane (CH4) (mg/m3) 12.11 <15 e
Ethylene (C2þ) (mg/m3) 2.13 <5 e
Particulate matter 10 mm and below (PM10) (mg/m3) 55 50
 N.H. Zainal et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 182 (2018) 830e837
Fig. 4. Effect of bioadsorbent dosage on the concentration and percentage removal of
(a) TSS (b) COD and (c) colour for final discharge POME.
river without a proper treatment. Most of the studies treat POME
using anaerobic, aerobic, ultra-filtration membrane (UF), faculta-
tive and algae ponds before discharge into river (Ali et al., 2017; Ho
et al., 2017). However, the concentrations of POME final discharge
835
Fig. 5. Effect of treatment time on the BOD concentration and percentage removal of
BOD for POME final discharge at an optimum dosage of 40 g/L.
usually do not meet the standard discharge limit for river quality by
Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia, due to the stringent
regulation by the Government of Malaysia that minimise the
discharge limit.
The effect of activated carbon (bioadsorbent) dosage on the
percentage removal of TSS, COD and colour are shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 4a shows the reduction concentration of TSS from 240 mg/L to
4 mg/L at 120 g/L of bioadsorbent dosage and the percentage
removal of TSS achieved maximum removal of up to 90% at 40 g/L of
bioadsorbent dosage. The percentage removal of TSS starts to
plateau at bioadsorbent dosage of >40 g/L. Increasing the bio-
adsorbent dosage above >40 g/L does not increase the adsorption
capacity due to the overlapping of adsorption site (Verma and
Mishra, 2008). Fig. 4b and c showed the same reduction trend for
COD and colour removal. At an optimum dosage of 40 g/L, the
percentage removal of COD achieved up to 68% from initial con-
centration of 604 mg/L to final concentration of 189 mg/L. The re-
sults also showed that the OPKS activated carbon also substantially
removed the colour from 3170 ADMI to 80 ADMI with 97% removal,
at an optimum dosage of 40 g/L. The overall results had proved that
activated carbon from OPKS had able to remove high percentage of
TSS, COD and colour at an optimum dosage of 40 g/L.
The effect of treatment time on BOD using 40 g/L of bio-
adsorbent has also been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of
OPKS activated carbon. Fig. 5 showed that the percentage removal
of BOD increased until the adsorption equilibrium reached after
30 h of treatment time. Rapid removal of BOD was observed within
the first 24 h with maximum percentage removal of BOD was 83%.
According to Mohammed and Chong (2014), different bioadsorbent
properties will give different adsorption ability due to availability of
sites for the sorbate. Meanwhile, adsorption equilibrium reach due
to the adsorption sites have been saturated and thus slower the
diffusion rate of molecules into the interior pores of the adsorbent
(Shavandi et al., 2012; Zahangir et al., 2009). This finding was also
supported by observing the SEM images of the activated carbon
before and after treatment of POME final discharge as shown in
Fig. 6. Similar development on surface morphology was also re-
ported by (Nor Faizah et al., 2016) showing that the pores of bio-
adsorbent were filled with impurities and elements of POME final
discharge.
Table 4 shows the concentrations and percentage removal of
BOD, COD, TSS and colour of POME final discharge using various
bioadsorbent materials in comparison with the standard discharge
836 N.H. Zainal et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 182 (2018) 830e837

Fig. 6. SEM images of (a) activated carbon before treatment and (b) activated carbon after treatment (bioadsorbent) at 3000 magnification.

Table 4
Comparison of different bioadsorbent material at different dosage with removal efficiency of final discharge POME.

Bioadsorbent material Bioadsorbent Concentration (mg/L)/Removal efficiency (%) Adsorption treatment Reference
dosage (g/L)
BOD COD TSS colour

Oil palm mesocarp 10 e 300 mg/L/70% 15 mg/L/ e By consecutive treatments (Ibrahim et al., 2017)
fiber 88%
Oil palm kernel shell 150 e 132-1008 mg/L/ e 38-4708 ADMI/ By fixed- bed treatment (Nor Faizah et al., 2016)
75% 76%
Banana peel 300 97% 100% 100% 96% Banana peel activated carbon (Mohammed and Chong,
2014)
Industrial-grade alum 10 e 10 mg/L/98% 2 mg/L/99% e Commercial activated carbon (Othman et al., 2014)
Rice husk 50 e 41% e 88% By microwave incineration system (Kutty et al., 2011)
Oil palm kernel shell 40 5.1 mg/L/ 189 mg/L/68% 18 mg/L/ 80 ADMI/97% Activated carbon oil palm kernel This study
83% 90% shell
Standard discharge e 100 mg/L e 200 mg/L 100 mg/L e (DOE, 1982)
limit

limit set by (DOE, 1982). High percentage removal efficiency was
achieved up to 90e100% for almost all of the reported studies. Even
though high removal percentage could be reached, most of the
studies used high bioadsorbent dosage (50e150 g/L) which
required high cost and maintenance. Furthermore, consecutive
treatments, addition of chemical and use of membrane filter are
required to treat the POME final discharge as reported by other
studies. In comparison to our study, bioadsorbent effectively ach-
ieved high removal percentage of BOD, COD, TSS and colour with
maximum percentage of 83%, 68%, 90% and 97%, respectively at an
optimum bioadsorbent dosage of 40 g/L. The bioadsorbent of OPKS
activated carbon can be directly used in final discharge pond by
varying the dosing and can be recycled back as soil conditioner or
regenerated (Ibrahim et al., 2017). Therefore, it can be concluded
that bioadsorbent from OPKS managed to remove the BOD, TSS and
colour from POME and thus successfully meet the requirement of
stringent discharge limit.
4. Conclusion
Double insulated activation-carbonisation reactor had improved
the surface area of OPKS activated carbon from 305 m2/g to
935e987 m2/g at activation temperature of 900
C and the yield
was maintained at 30% as compared to a small scale carbonisation-
activation reactor (previous work). The activated carbon produced
shown high mass and low energy yield which represents a high
value-added porous carbon from oil palm biomass. Furthermore,
the gaseous emission generated from this system is below the
standard limits stipulated by the Malaysian Ambient Air Quality
Standards (2015). An application of activated carbon as bio-
adsorbent for the treatment of POME final discharge was also
evaluated. The concentrations of TSS, COD, colour and BOD in the
POME final discharge had successfully reduced by up to 90%, 68%,
97% and 83%, respectively using at relatively low bioadsobent
dosage of 40 g/L. The treated POME final discharge complied with
the standard limit before being discharge into the river.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the Universiti Putra Malaysia and the
Director General of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) for the
financial support to conduct this study.
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