Comparison of effectiveness of rice husk ash and polyaluminum chloride in coagulation of palm oil mill effluent Indriana Lestari, Dwi Amalia, Jeremia Bernadin Perangin Angin, Muhammad Haekal Zenatik
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Indonesia, Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Vetern Yogyakarta
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Rice Husk Ash (RHA) and polyaluminium chloride (PAC) as coagulants for removing Total Solids (TS) from POME. The study focused on coagulant dosage and settling time as key process parameters. Using RHA, the treatment achieved up to 47,27% TS removal under optimal conditions, which were 6.5 g of RHA and a 60-minute settling time. Similarly, PAC showed slightly better performance with a removal efficiency of 58,93% for total solids at an optimal dosage of 6.5 g and a 60-minute settling time. The results suggest that RHA could be a cost-effective alternative for PAC to treat POME. In addition, the SEM-EDX characterization results showed that the resulting RHA was amorphous with a silica content of 13.7%.
