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Synergistic effect of ultrasonic and microwave pretreatment on improved biohydrogen generation from palm oil mill effluent

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of the ultrasonic, microwave, and combined ultrasonic-microwave pretreatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME) sludge before fermentation to analyze hydrogen (H2) production and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency in batch fermentation. Experimental results showed that the pretreatment of sludge (ultrasonication, microwave, and ultrasonication-microwave pretreatment) had positively influence the H2 production and COD removal efficiency during fermentation as compared to control one (without any pretreatment). Combined ultrasonication-microwave pretreatment of POME sludge was shown to be more effective for increasing both H2 production and COD removal from POME with the highest cumulative H2 and COD removal efficiency of 4080 mL H2/L-POME and 75.56%, respectively. The improvement observed for cumulative H2 production and COD removal was 12.14% and 21.42%, respectively, compared to the control one. These observations concluded that the POME sludge pretreatment with ultrasonication-microwave irradiation could be an effective strategy for improved treatment of POME with simultaneous production of H2.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support of the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (Ref. code FRGS/1/2018/STG05/UMP/01/1; UMP Ref.: RDU190121). Puranjan Mishra would like to acknowledge the Postdoctoral Research Fellowship awarded by the Research and Innovation Department, Universiti Malaysia Pahang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Civil Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Gambang, 26300, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

    Puranjan Mishra, Zularisam ab Wahid, Rubaiyi M. Zaid & Mimi Sakinah

  2. Department of Environmental Science, SRM University-AP, Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, 522502, India

    Lakhveer Singh

  3. Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, UMP, 26300, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

    Shabana Tabassum

  4. School of Petrochemical Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou City, China

    Xia Jiang

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  1. Puranjan Mishra
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Mishra, P., Wahid, Z.a., Singh, L. et al. Synergistic effect of ultrasonic and microwave pretreatment on improved biohydrogen generation from palm oil mill effluent. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 12, 3655–3662 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-01285-4

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