ANAEROBIC CO-DIGESTION OF OIL PALM FROND AND PALM OIL MILL EFFLUENT FOR BIOGAS PRODUCTION

Abstract

The palm oil is a significant industry in Indonesia, with a total plantation area of 14.33 million hectares and CPO production of 46.82 million tons in the year 2022. Two significant wastes are the oil palm fronds (OPF) and palm oil mill effluent (POME). These wastes can be processed into biogas, a renewable energy source. Anaerobic co-digestion of OPF, POME, and cattle manure (CM) is studied to observe the effect of mixing ratio on biogas production quantity and quality, as well as the relation of total solids (TS) and volatile solids (VS) content with biogas production. The mixing combinations are OPF:CM (1:10) in mass ratio, OPF:POME (1:35) in mass/volume ratio, and OPF:POME:CM (1:25:10, 1:35:10, 1:45:10) in mass/volume/mass ratio. The highest cumulative biogas yield was achieved at 28.93 ml (SD = 19.82) by the OPF:POME mix of 1:35. Biogas production is observed to increase as total solids content decrease, while it was found that biogas production increases along with volatile solids content.