Abstract：
Attributable to the prosperous production growth of palm oil in Malaysia, the generated palm oil mill effluent (POME) poses a high threat owing to its highly polluted characteristic. Urged by the escalating concern of environmental conservation, POME pollution abatement and potential energy recovery from the effluent are flagged up as a research topic of interest. In this study, a cutting-edge photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) system with employment of ZnO/Zn nanorod array (NRA) photoanode, CuO/Cu cathode, and persulfate (PS) oxidant was successfully designed to improve the treatment of POME and simultaneous energy production. The photoelectrodes were fabricated and characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), and Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller analysis (BET). Owing to the properties of strong oxidant of PS, the proposed PFC/PS system has exhibited exceptional performance, attaining chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 96.2%, open circuit voltage (Voc) of 740.0 mV, short circuit current density (Jsc) of 146.7 μA cm-2, and power density (Pmax) of 35.6 μW cm-2. The pre-eminent PFC/PS system performance was yielded under optimal conditions of 2.5 mM of persulfate oxidant, POME dilution factor of 1:20, and natural solution pH of 8.51. Subsequently, the postulated photoelectrocatalytic POME treatment mechanism was elucidated by the radical scavenging study and Mott-Schottky (M-S) analysis. The following recycling test affirmed the stability and durability of the photoanode after four continuous repetition usages while the assessed electrical energy efficiency revealed the economic viability of PFC system serving as a post-treatment for abatement of POME. These findings contributed toward enhancing the sustainability criteria and economic viability of palm oil by adopting sustainable and efficient POME post-treatment technology.
摘要：
归功于马来西亚棕榈油产量的繁荣增长，产生的棕榈油厂废水（POME）由于其高污染的特性而构成了很高的威胁。受环境保护问题不断升级的推动，POME污染减少和从废水中回收潜在能量被标记为感兴趣的研究课题。在这项研究中,采用ZnO/Zn纳米棒阵列（NRA）光阳极的尖端光催化燃料电池（PFC）系统，CuO/Cu阴极，成功地设计了过硫酸盐（PS）氧化剂，以改善POME的处理和同时产生能量。制备了光电极，并通过具有能量的场发射扫描电子显微镜（FESEM）进行了表征，X射线衍射(XRD)能量色散X射线（EDX），和Brunauer,埃米特,和出纳员分析（BET）。由于PS的强氧化剂的性质，拟议的PFC/PS系统表现出卓越的性能，化学需氧量(COD)去除率达96.2%,开路电压(Voc)为740.0mV,短路电流密度（Jsc）为146.7μAcm-2，功率密度（Pmax）为35.6μWcm-2。在2.5mM过硫酸盐氧化剂的最佳条件下，可获得出色的PFC/PS系统性能，POME稀释因子为1:20,天然溶液pH为8.51。随后，通过自由基清除研究和Mott-Schottky（M-S）分析阐明了假定的光电催化POME处理机理。以下再循环测试确认了在四次连续重复使用之后光电阳极的稳定性和耐久性,而评估的电能效率揭示了用作POME的后处理的PFC系统的经济可行性。通过采用可持续和有效的POME后处理技术，这些发现有助于提高棕榈油的可持续性标准和经济可行性。
