ABSTRACT:
Fibrous filter media in the form of non-woven filters have been used extensively in water treatment as
pre-filters or to support the medium that does the separation. Lignocellulosic such as empty fruit
bunches have potential to be used as a low cost filter media as they represent unused resources, widely
available and are environmentally friendly. Laboratory filtration tests were performed to investigate the
potential application of empty fruit bunches that enriched with chitosan as a fiber filter media to
remove suspended solids, oil and grease, and organics in terms of chemical oxygen demand from palm
oil mill effluent. The present paper studies the effect of chitosan concentration on the filter media
performance. Bench-scaled experiment results indicated that pre-treatment using the fiber filtration
system removed up to 67.3% of total suspended solid, 65.1% of oil and grease and 46.1% of chemical
oxygen demand. The results show that the lignocellulosic fiber filter could be a potential technology for
primary wastewater treatment.