MILLS: WASTE OR RESOURCE

Abstract: During the last century, a great deal of research and development as well as application has been devoted to pollution control advance technologies for treatment and management of both solid and liquid waste generated from palm oil mills. The major reason for such huge efforts is that waste generated from palm oil mills have been declared as one of the major source of environmental pollution. Although palm oil mills generate both solid and liquid wastes, but according to this review, palm oil mill effluent (POME) has been singled out by the operators as the most expensive and difficult waste to manage. This paper aims to present the potentials of POME as a resource that can contribute to world economic and sustainable development. The emergent of the new biotechnological advances and POME treatment technologies like POMETHANE (an anaerobic thermophilic digestion process which maximizes the yield of biogas production) has changed the status of POME from waste to resource. Use of current advance technologies to manage POME by mill operators will not only turn POME to resources, but also means of achieving zero discharge concept