The biggest agricultural sector that contributes to the Malaysian economy is the oil palm industry. The effluent generated during the production of crude palm oil known as palm oil mill effluent (POME). POME undergoes anaerobic treatment that requires long retention time and produces large amount of methane that consequently contributes to global warming. In this study, an isolated bacteria was selected based on its ability to degrade kraft lignin (KL) and identified as Ochrobactrum sp. The bacteria were able to treat POME (from anaerobic pond) under the aerobic condition without addition of nutrient, resulting in a significant chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 71 %, removal rate of 1385 mg/l/day, and 12.3 times higher than that of the ponding system. It has also resulted in 60 % removal of ammoniacal nitrogen and 55 % of total polyphenolic after 6-day treatment period with the detection of lignocellulolytic enzymes.
Sanitary landfilling is the most common way to dispose solid urban waste; however, improper landfill management may pose serious environmental threats through discharge of high strength polluted wastewater also known as leachate. The treatment of landfill leachate to fully reduce the negative impact on the environment, is nowadays a challenge. In this study, an aerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) was proposed for the treatment of locally obtained real landfill leachate with initial ammoniacal nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of 1800 and 3200 mg/L, respectively. ASBR could remove 65 % of ammoniacal nitrogen and 30 % of COD during seven days of treatment time. Thereafter, an effective adsorbent, i.e., zeolite was used as a secondary treatment step for polishing the ammoniacal nitrogen and COD content that is present in leachate. The results obtained are promising where the adsorption of leachate by zeolite further enhanced the removal of ammoniacal nitrogen and COD up to 96 and 43 %, respectively. Furthermore, this combined biological-physical treatment system was able to remove heavy metals, i.e. aluminium, vanadium, chromium, magnesium, cuprum and plumbum significantly. These results demonstrate that combined ASBR and zeolite adsorption is a feasible technique for the treatment of landfill leachate, even considering this effluent's high resistance to treatment.