Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a hazardous wastewater which contains high organic constituents and salt concentrations. The ultrafiltration (UF) process is a promising treatment design used for secondary treatment such as POME. However, membrane fouling is the major problem which limits the performance of the UF. This paper describes a detailed investigation of polyvinylidiene fluoride (PVDF) membrane for the treatment of POME. The fouling behavior was analyzed by water flux, fouling mechanism, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), particle size distribution (PSD) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX). It was found that a significant reduction in the permeate flux was caused by the build up of a fouling layer. Study on the fouling mechanism shows that cake filtration dominated the fouling activities on the membrane surface, compared to standard blocking, intermediate blocking, and complete blocking. This result is supported by membrane autopsy through SEM, PSD and EDX.

棕榈油厂废水（POME）是一种有害废水，其中含有较高的有机成分和盐浓度。超滤（UF）工艺是用于POME等二级处理的有前途的处理设计。但是，膜结垢是限制超滤性能的主要问题。本文详细介绍了聚偏二氟乙烯（PVDF）膜用于治疗POME的详细研究。通过水通量，结垢机理，扫描电子显微镜（SEM），粒度分布（PSD）和能量分散X射线（EDX）来分析结垢行为。已经发现，由于结垢层的堆积而导致渗透通量的显着降低。对结垢机理的研究表明，滤饼过滤控制了膜表面的结垢活性，与标准封锁，中间封锁和完全封锁相比。通过SEM，PSD和EDX进行的膜尸检证实了这一结果。