Physicochemical and Microbial Screening of Palm Oil Mill Effluents for Amylase Production

With the advent of biotechnology, several industries are dependent on enzyme for production processes. This study evaluated the physicochemical and microbiological quality of POME for amylase production. Triplicate POME samples were collected aseptically from semi-mechanized oil palm processing mills in Bayelsa state, Nigeria. The physicochemical properties of the POME samples were determined using standard analytical procedures. The results of the physicochemical quality assessment result were 6.56 (pH), 4.69 mg/l (DO), 1806.33 mg/l (COD), 382.93 mg/l (BOD), 8.18 mg/l (PO₄³-), 19.64 mg/l (K), 12.87 mg/l (N), 73.07 mg/l (oil and grease), 0.03 mg/l (Cd), 2.44 mg/l (Cu), 5.62 mg/l (Fe) and 2.01 mg/l (Cr). The microbial populations of the samples were1.3 x 10⁵ cfu/ml and 6.9 x 10³cfu/ml for total heterotrophic bacteria and total fungi respectively. The bacteria isolates areMicrococcus species, Bacillus species, Pseudomonas species, Staphylococcus aureus,while the fungi isolates are Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida species, Fusarium species, Mucor species and Penicillium species. Of bacterial isolates,Micrococcus species and Staphylococcus aureus has the highest and least occurrence frequency of 34% and 13% respectively, while in fungi isolates Penicillium species andFusarium species has the highest and least isolates with 23% and 7% respectively. Of the microbial isolates of POME, Bacillus species, Pseudomonas species, Staphylococcus aureus, Penicillium species, Fusarium species, Mucor species, Candida species andAspergillus niger were predominant for the production of amylase. This amylase can be utilized in several industrial/biotechnological sectors including biofuels.