Resumen
In the present research, local rambutan seed extract was used as a bio-coagulant for the treatment of palm oil mill effluent (POME). Jar test experiments were conducted to find the optimal operating conditions for the removal of turbidity and total suspended solids from POME. At an optimal pH of 3, bio-coagulant dosage of 600 mg/L and room temperature of 28°C, an impressive removal of 65% of total suspended solids and 79% of turbidity was achieved. Along with this, a Feedforward Artificial Neural Network (FANN) was used to model the coagulation mechanism. Three different training algorithms were tested on the FANN, namely the Lavenberg-Marquardt, Bayesian Regularization and Scaled Conjugate Gradient methods. The best training algorithm was found to be Bayesian Regularization, based on the fact that it was in closer agreement with the experiment results and gave very low error percentage. The results of this study suggest that rambutan seeds have potential in being used as a bio-coagulant for POME treatment. Treatment efficiencies were reasonably high, and less sludge was produced using this natural treatment method, thus deemed to be more economical and environmentally friendly.