Biophysical Characterization of Palm Oil Mill Effluent from Adapalm, Imo State Nigeria

This study was designed to investigate the biophysical characteristics of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) produced by ADAPALM oil mill, Imo State, Nigeria. A total of three samples were ascetically collected from the mills. The POME was subjected to standard microbiological analysis and physiochemical studies. The population of Total Heterotrophic Bacteria (THB) ranged from 1.71 x 104 - 1.90 x 104 (cfu/g), the Total Heterotrophic Fungi (THF) ranged from 4.70 x 102 - 7.00 x 102 (cfu/g). The bacteria isolated from the POME followed the order Staphylococcus sp. (38%) >Pseudomonas sp. (32%) > Serratia sp. and Bacillus sp. (15%), while the fungi isolate from POME include Aspergillus niger, Aspergillu flavu, Penicillium Specie and Mucor species. The physiochemical characteristics showed range of 3.98 ± 0.03 to 4.22 ± 0.02 for pH, electrical conductivity from 291 ± 0.8 to 312 ± 1.6 µS/cm, temperature from 27.2 ± 28.8 ± 0.1 oC and moisture content from 4.1 ± 0.4 to 6.0 ± 0.1% respectively. Although, the POME contains microbial species capable of degrading hydrocarbons in the POME to prevent environmental impacts, the results showed possible non existence of effluent treatment of any form.