Skip to content

Electro-oxidation of palm oil mill effluent using a boron-doped diamond anode

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2019-05-07
JournalIOP Conference Series Materials Science and Engineering
AuthorsSalih Muharam, Jarnuzi Gunlazuardi, Tribidasari A. Ivandini
InstitutionsUniversitas Muhammadiyah Sukabumi, University of Indonesia
Citations4

The palm oil industry produces a large amount of wastewater as palm oil mill effluent (POME) that contains high concentrations of organic compounds, which are difficult to completely remove and consequently result in the degradation of aquatic ecosystems. In this work, palmitic acid was used as a model compound of POME to study its oxidation reactions. The experiment was conducted in a flow cell system with boron-doped diamond as the anode. A voltammetric technique was used to remove palmitic acid while observing the change in chemical oxygen demand concentration to monitor the reaction. The effects of supporting electrolyte, potential, time, and flow rate on the oxidation were studied. The results indicate that degradation of palmitic acid occurs as an indirect effect of electro-oxidation at high potential in the region of oxygen evolution or formation of hydroxyl radicals. Furthermore, under optimum conditions, up to 87.91% of the palmitic acid could be electrochemically removed.