A brief review on biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) treatment methods for palm oil mill effluents (POME)

Abstract Numerous issues pertaining to palm oil mill effluents (POME), such as the release of high level of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and other pollutants into the environment, have brought major public concern. Hence, Department of Environment (DOE) has implemented stricter laws on the final discharge of POME, whereby BOD must be less than 20 mg L−1. Addressing that, the recent types of treatment methods to reduce BOD were briefly reviewed in this article. A lower value of BOD can be achieved by improving both biological and physiochemical treatment methods for POME. The palm oil industry has also recently combined the existing treatment and biogas capture technology to create an integrated system to reduce BOD effectively, and at the same time, make full use of the valuable by-products, such as methane gas, as part of the effort to realise the idea of zero discharge waste. In conclusion, based on the previous studies, of whether in small or large scale, it is recommended to include information of BOD reduction for future research guidelines, which can be used to address related palm oil waste discharge issues for better environmental quality.