Saccharum officinarum Bio-coagulant for Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment

The coagulation process has become a common treatment method in water and wastewater treatment but not in palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment. POME is known to have a high level of COD and turbidity and prior studies showed that the modified coagulation process using bio-coagulant may be feasible to remove primarily the COD and turbidity of the POME. In this study, an extract of Saccharum officinarum or bagasse is used as a source of bio-coagulant for the removal of COD and turbidity from POME at optimized coagulant dosage, pH, and contact time. The optimization was carried out via response surface analysis. This analysis stipulated that the application of Saccharum officinarum extract removed turbidity of more than 95%, COD of more than 65.0% with coagulation activity of 67.4% at optimum 50 mg/L coagulant dosage, pH 8, and slow mixing for 30 minutes. Henceforth, this study concludes the suitability of Saccharum officinarum as a bio-coagulant to primarily remove organic and solid pollutants during POME pre-treatment.