Removal of Residual Oil from Palm Oil Mill Effluent Using Solvent Extraction Method

Abstract

Pencemaran akibat dari minyak buangan yang terkandung dalam air sisa merupakan salah satu masalah persekitaran yang amat serius. Disebabkan oleh perkembangan industri kelapa sawit yang amat pesat di Malaysia, suatu isipadu air sisa dari kilang kelapa sawit (POME) yang banyak juga dihasilkan pada masa yang sama. Pengekstrakkan minyak buangan dari POME telah dijalankan menggunakan proses pengektrakan pelarut. Dalam kajian ini, kesan masa pengektrakan, nisbah pelarut/suapan dan kadar pencampuran pengektrakan menggunakan beberapa jenis pelarut telah dijalankan. N–pentana, n–hexana dan n–heptana telah digunakan sebagai pelarut. Peratus minyak yang diekstrakkan pada keadaan–keadaan optimum ujikaji menggunakan n–pentana, n–hexana dan n–heptana diperolehi masing–masing sebanyak 58, 63 dan 65 peratus. Pengekstrakan berbagai peringkat juga telah dijalankan. Lebih dari 97% minyak buangan yang terkandung dalam POME telah berjaya diekstrakkan pada peringkat keempat pengekstrakkan menggunakan pelarut–pelarut tersebut. Kata kunci: Pengekstrakkan; kadar pencampuran; masa pencampuran; pelarut; POME Pollution from residual oil content in the wastewater is one of the serious environmental problems. Due to the rapid development of the palm oil industry in Malaysia, a large volume of palm oil mill effluent (POME) has been produced at the same time. Removal of residual oil from POME was carried out using solvent extraction process. The effect of different solvents, extraction time, solvent/feed ratio and mixing rate on extraction efficiency were investigated throughout this work. N– pentane, n–hexane and n–heptane were used as solvents. The percent of oil extracted at the optimum conditions of 10 min extraction time, 1:1 solvent: feed ratio, 200 rpm using n–pentane, n–hexane and n–heptane were found to be 58, 63 and 65, respectively for a single stage extraction. Multistage extraction has shown that the % of oil extracted increased significantly to more than 97% of the residual oil in the POME. Key words: Extraction; mixing rate; mixing time; solvent; POME