Mass transfer kinetics of biosorption of nitrogenous matter from palm oil mill effluent by aerobic granules in sequencing batch reactor

ABSTRACT

Understanding of mass transfer kinetics is important for biosorption of nitrogen compounds from palm oil mill effluent (POME) to gain a mechanistic insight into future biological processes for the treatment of high organic loading wastewater. In this study, the rates of global and sequential mass transfer were determined using the modified mass transfer factor equations for the experiments to remove nitrogen by aerobic granular sludge accumulation in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The maximum efficiencies as high as 97% for the experiment run at [k_La]_g value of 1421.8 h⁻¹ and 96% for the experiment run at [k_La]_g value of 9.6 × 10³⁷ h⁻¹ were verified before and after the addition of Serratia marcescens SA30, respectively. The resistance of mass transfer could be dependent on external mass transfer that controls the transport of nitrogen molecule along the experimental period of 256 days. The increase in [k_La]_g value leading to increased performance of the SBR was verified to contribute to the future applications of the SBR because this phenomenon provides new insight into the dynamic response of biological processes to treat POME.

KEYWORDS:

• Biosorption
• mass transfer kinetic
• palm oil mill effluent
• sequencing batch reactor
• Serratia marcescens SA30
• nitrogen compound

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Mohamad Ali Fulazzaky http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4600-5742

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia for MyPhD scholarship and the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia [Vot. No. 11H98] for Research University Grant.