Browsing by Author "Neoh, Chin Hong"

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    Decolourisation of palm oil mill effluent using curvularia clavata
    (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 2014) Neoh, Chin Hong
    The conventional treatment process of palm oil mill effluent (POME) produces highly coloured effluent. The coloured compounds in POME cause reduction in photosynthetic activities, produce carcinogenic by-products in drinking water, chelate with metal ions, and are toxic to aquatic biota. Thus, failure of the conventional treatment methods to decolourise POME has become an important problem to be addressed. From the 24 fungi that were isolated, 11 of the fungal strains were able to decolourise the POME. Aspergillus fumigatus isolated from POME sludge and Curvularia clavata isolated from pineapple solid wastes showed the highest decolourisation of POME. C. clavata was selected for the forthcoming experiments as its decolourisation was contributed by adsorption and enzymatic degradation and this is potentially useful in degrading and transforming of coloured pollutants. After optimisation using response surface methodology, C. clavata showed removal of colour by 81% at pH 5, 10% v/v inoculum, 0.6% w/v fructose and 0.3% w/v peptone. Ecotoxicity test indicated that the decolourised effluent was safe for discharge. To determine the longevity of the fungus for a prolonged decolourisation period, sequential batch decolourisation studies were carried out. The results showed that lignin peroxidase and laccase were the main ligninolytic enzymes involved in the degradation of colour. Carboxymethylcellulase (CMCase) and xylanase activities were also detected suggesting possible roles of the enzymes in promoting growth of the fungus which consequently contributed to improve decolourisation of POME. This study has shown the potential use of C. clavata for decolourisation and degradation of agricultural wastewater containing polyphenolic compounds