Start-up treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) final discharge using Napier Grass in wetland system

Average of about 53 million m³ POME is being produced yearly in Malaysia. The treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) will be discharged to the river. However, the POME final discharge still contains high oxygen demand (COD) and suspended solids (SS) that potentially to cause environmental issues. Therefore, the aim of this study is to treat the POME final discharge with Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) in the constructed wetland system. This study has been carried out to investigate the feasibility of the Constructed Wetland in polishing the final discharge according to river quality index. Besides, the propagation of Napier grass in the POME final discharge was evaluated. Four different physicochemical parameters such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solid (TSS), ammonia and colour were analysed based on standard laboratory methods and procedures. Results revealed that the reduction of COD level by 71.57 %, TSS by 83.59 %, ammonia by 85.97 % and colour reduced by 87.62 % after 15 days treatment time. In term of propagation of plant, Napier grass showed an excellent propagation in POME final discharge by 13.94% increment. The overall results indicated that treatment of POME final discharge by using Napier grass constructed wetland was successful to reduce the concentration of the contaminants.