The Performance Evaluation of Anaerobic Methods for Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Treatment: A Review

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is an important source of inland water pollution when released into local rivers or lakes without treatment. In the process of palm oil milling, POME is generat‐ ed through sterilization of fresh oil palm fruit bunches, clarification of palm oil and effluent from hydro-cyclone operations [Borja et al.,1996a]. POME is a viscous brown liquid with fine suspended solids at pH ranging between 4 and 5 [Najafpour et al., 2006]. In general appear‐ ance, palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a yellowish acidic wastewater with fairly high polluting properties, with average of 25,000 mg/l biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), 55,250 mg/l chem‐ ical oxygen demand (COD) and 19,610 mg/l suspended solid (SS). This highly polluting waste‐ water can cause several pollution problems. Therefore, direct discharge of POME into the environment is not encouraged due to the high values of COD, BOD and SS.