Ramlah Mohd Tajuddin, Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, and Mohd Razman Salim

pp. 989 - 998

Abstract

A research aimed to explore new method of aeration using oxygen enriched air performance on
BOD reduction of palm oil wastewater was conducted. The oxygen enriched air was obtained from an Oxygen Enriched System (OES) developed using asymmetric polysulfone hollow fiber membrane with composition consisting of PSF: 22%, DMAc: 31.8%, THF: 31.8%, EtOH: 14.4%. Palm oil wastewater samples
were taken from facultative pond effluent. These samples were tested for its initial biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), pH, conductivity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), suspended
solids (SS), and total dissolved solids (TDS) before being subjected to two modes of aeration system, that
is diffused air and oxygen enriched air. These water quality concentrations were tested for every 20 minutes
for two-hour period during the aeration process. Results of BOD, TSS, pH, conductivity, DO, SS and TDS
concentrations against time of samples from the two modes of aeration were then compared. It was found
that DO concentration achieved in oxygen enriched air aeration was better than aeration using diffused air
system. Aeration using OES improve the DO concentration in the wastewater and thus improve the BOD
reduction and also influence other physical characteristics of wastewater. This phenomenon indicates the
advantage of using air with higher oxygen concentration for wastewater aeration instead of diffused air
system.