Pengaruh Variasi Ukuran Mesh dan Kecepatan Pengadukan Terhadap Kinerja Serat Fiber Kelapa Sawit Tanpa Aktivasi dalam Penurunan COD dan Perubahan pH Effluent POME dengan Tawas dan PAC

Fithry, Dwi Anissa
Sitorus, Oby Vijay
Syafitri, Fadila

Jurnal Teknik Industri Terintegrasi (JUTIN)
Vol. 9 No. 1 (2026): January

Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) has very high COD (26,420 mg/L) and acidic pH (5.25), requiring a simple, economical, and sustainable polishing stage to approach environmental quality standards. This study investigates the effect of mesh size variation and stirring speed on the performance of unactivated oil palm fiber as a polishing medium for POME effluent with alum and PAC addition to reduce COD and modify pH. Laboratory-scale batch experiments used POME effluent from PKS Sei Pagar (COD 26,420 mg/L, pH 5.25), pyrolyzed oil palm fiber (yield 63.12%, moisture 4.88%) with mesh sizes 60 and 70, stirring at 50-100 rpm for 30 minutes, and alum/PAC solution (5 g/250 ml) at 4 ml/100 ml POME. The mesh 60 + alum 100 rpm combination achieved the highest COD reduction of 54.4% and relatively stable final pH.