POME Applications
POME Applications
Environmental Issue
Direct discharge of untreated POME into aquatic environments cause serious
pollution problem
Often discarded in disposal ponds, resulting in the leaching of contaminants that
pollute the groundwater and soil,
Uniqueness of POME
High concentration of carbohydrate, protein, nitrogenous compounds, lipids and
mineral
It is a good raw material for bioconversion through various biotechnology
processes
CONVERSION OF POME INTO VALUE ADDED
PRODUCTS
Carotene Bioplastic
Extraction formation
Application of carotenoids
Use in food,cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries
-carotene is a precursor of vitamin A (enhance immunity, maintaining healthy
skin,hair)
BIOPLASTIC FORMATION
Has a high carbon content (BOD higher than 20 g/L) with low nitrogen content
(less than 0.2 g/L ammoniacal-nitrogen and less than 0.5 g/L total nitrogen)
Moreover, because it contains high organic content and almost being non-toxic,
POME could be suitable for PHA production
Thus use of a POME as an inexpensive carbon source to produce PHA may lead
to significant economic advantages
Global interest in the utilization of biomass and wastes for
Bioethanol Production:
Conversion of POME for bioethanol production simple & effective treatment of this effluent
produced by palm oil mills could reduce the reliance on fossil sources and curb some levels
of environmental pollution
Combustion of ethanol does not contribute to global warming unlike fossil fuel with
atmospheric build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The production of bioethanol using POME as the main substrate using Saccharomyces
cerevisiae under controlled laboratory condition with an optimum yield of 16%.
Enzymatic treatments to convert cellulose and hemicellulose to sugars are then used; the
microbial bioconversion of the produced sugar results in the formation of the final product
bioethanol.
Citric acid production:
In an effort to utilize the palm oil industries effluent discharge, citric acid has been produced
using POME as a raw material.
Industrial production of citric acid depends on fungal fermentation (e.g. Aspergillus niger) in the
presence of glucose (or sucrose) as the main substrate using liquid and solid state
fermentation techniques.
However, several cheaper substrates have been used for citric acid production by A. niger.
These include inulin (Drysdale and McKay, 1995), date fruit syrup, sugarcane molasses among
others but all these substrates have lesser yields when compared to POME.
Citric acid is used extensively in various industrial processes especially as acidulant, stabilizer,
flavour enhancer, preservative, antioxidant, emulsifier and chelating agent using POME as a
new substrate proved effective.
BIOHYDROGEN FORMATION