Case 1 – MBR for Palm Oil Mill Effluents in Malaysia
Palm oil production is vital for the economy of Malaysia, which is the world's second largest producer of the commodity after Indonesia. However, the palm oil industry in Malaysia produces about 90 million tons of lignocellulosic biomass, including palm oil mill effluent (POME) as well as palm trunks, fruitless bunches and palm fronds, which poses a huge pressure of environment pollution.
It is very difficult to treat POME due to its extremely high content of organic and inorganic solids. BM TEK Malaysia started making efforts to address this issue more than 10 years ago and has successfully completed the challenging task by using Primem MBR membrane. It’s worth emphasizing that some of the MBR projects for treatment of POME have been in operation for 10 years without batch replacement of MBR membrane modules, a convincing proof for the quality of Primem membranes. Now there are dozens of such MBR systems in operation in Malaysia. Below is a summary of some basic information on MBR projects for POME in Malaysia.