Water quality assessment and a study of current palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment by ponding system method

Palm oil is one of the main drivers of Malaysian economy that becomes major contributor to the Malaysian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the agriculture sector. The demand for palm oil-based product is expected to increase proportionally to the growing population, thus palm oil plantations have been growing rapidly to meet the global demand. Hence, to ensure sustainable management of palm oil production, avoid a significant effect to environmental pollution, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) have been established to minimize environmental issues related to the palm oil industry in Malaysia. This paper provides the physicochemical characteristics and treatment techniques currently available for treating palm oil mill effluent (POME) nowadays. In addition, the correspondence between biological oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solid (SS) of raw POME samples with the rainfall distribution pattern were also evaluated. The sampling took place at the cooling pond of a palm oil mill throughout 2019 and had been analyzed using water quality standard methods. The results indicated that the total monthly rainfall significantly influenced the concentration of BOD and SS parameters, of which in dry season (February) the highest BOD (36,200 mg/L) and lowest SS (10,522 mg/L) were recorded.