Zero Sludge Palm Oil Milling Plant with Oil-Oil Extraction Based on Superhydrophobic Membrane

• Main Author: TANUKUSUMA NIM : 13014045, GRACE
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/27572
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The water needed for production of 1 tonne palm oil is approximately 5 tonnes, and most of the water would ended up being a wastewater in the clarification process of Crude palm oil which is usually called as Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME). One of the proposed alternative process is by combining oil-oil extraction of palm fruit and continuous filtration of oil based on superhydrophobic membrane. The aim of this study is to test the performance of superhydrophobic polypropylene membrane for the continuous filtration of oil-water emulsion. <br /> <br /> In this experiment, ultrafiltration of crude palm oil and water mixture was conducted at various operating condition including temperature (26-80oC), transmembrane pressure (0,5-2 bar), and water concentration in feed (10-25%). Membrane characteristics were evaluated based on oil contact angle, water contact angle, and membrane permeability. Membrane performance was evaluated based on permeate flux, rejection of water, rejection of non-dissolved solid, and permeate clarity. Rejection of water were determined using loss on drying principle and permeate clarity was determined using spectrophotometer at 440 nm wavelength. Membrane cleaning was performed using air scouring method (1 and 5 mins). <br /> <br /> Superhydrophobic polypropylene hollow fiber membrane exhibited a superhydrophobic and oleofilic characteristic with water contact angle of 150o and oil contact angle of 42,56o. The ultrafiltration results showed that the optimum condition for this process was at 40oC, 2 bar wherein flux of 1,69 L m-2 h-1 and >98% water rejection were achieved. The rejection were >95% for all concentrations. Besides, the membrane cleaning using air-scouring metode was able to recover flux up to 90% at 5 minutes backwash duration. Therefore, the superhydrophobic membrane shows an attractive potential for simultaneous clarification and dehydration of crude palm oil as an alternative to current industrial processing method.