Volume 11 Issue 3 ( September 2024)

As one of the biggest palm oil producers in the world, Indonesia has great potential to utilize Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) for producing hydrogen as a promising energy resource. This study investigated the impact of thermal pretreatment on the efficiency of biohydrogen production from POME through hydrolysis-acidogenesis. POME was pretreated at various temperatures (50, 75, 100, 125, and 150°C) before being combined with the cow dung inoculum. The combination was fermented in a bioreactor at 35°C for 48 h. Every four hours, hydrogen gas generation was monitored using GC-TCD, and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the substrate was studied before and after the reaction to determine the efficiency of heat pretreatment. The study found that preheating the material to 100°C produced the best results, with a hydrogen content of 36.5% and a COD removal efficiency of 22.74%. The highest hydrogen yield was 0.264 liters of hydrogen per liter of POME, which is 8.79% of the theoretical maximum. When the temperature exceeded 100°C, hydrogen production decreased due to the formation of stubborn substances. These findings highlight that the right thermal pretreatment can greatly enhance biohydrogen production from POME, offering a sustainable way to manage waste and generate alternative energy.

Keywords: POME, hydrogen, hydrolysis-acidogenesis, thermal pretreatment, COD