Potential Utilisation of Dark-Fermented Palm Oil Mill Effluent in Continuous Production of Biomethane by Self-Granulated Mixed Culture

Abstract

Two-stage anaerobic digestion of palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a promising method for converting the waste from the largest agricultural industry in Southeast Asia into a clean and sustainable energy. This study investigates the degradation of acid-rich effluent from the dark fermentation stage for the production of biomethane (BioCH₄) in a 30-L continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). The continuous methanogenic process was operated with varied HRTs (10 - 1 day) and OLRs (4.6-40.6 g_COD/L.d^-1) under thermophilic conditions. Methanothermobacter sp. was the dominant thermophilic archaea that was responsible for the production rate of 4.3 L_CH4/L_POME.d^-1 and methane yield of 256.77 L_CH4kg_COD at HRT of 2 d, which is the lowest HRT reported in the literature. The process was able to digest 85% and 64% of the initial POME's COD and TSS, respectively. The formation of methane producing granules (MPG) played a pivotal role in sustaining the efficient and productive anaerobic system. We report herein that the anaerobic digestion was not only beneficial in reducing the contaminants in the liquid effluent, but generating BioCH₄ gas with a positive net energy gain of 7.6 kJ/g_COD.