The evening sun painted the ponds of the palm oil mill in shades of gold.
From the balcony, Hana watched bubbles rise from the Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME). To many, it was just wastewater, dark and unpleasant.
But Hana saw more.
"Even in waste, there is hidden value," she reminded her engineers.
🌊 The Challenge of POME
Every tonne of Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) processed created nearly 0.65 m³ of POME. Within it, traces of oil — low-grade, dark, and mixed with sludge — escaped the presses [1].
"Most people see this as loss. But leaders must learn to recover value, even from what others ignore."
🔬 Experiment 1: Polypropylene Micro/Nano Fibers
Hana introduced her team to new research. Scientists had developed polypropylene micro/nano fibers (PP-MNF) that could capture oil molecules from POME.
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Recovery rate: ~10.93 g oil per g fiber.
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Yield: 89.6% oil extraction.
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Oil quality: Comparable to crude palm oil, free from fiber contamination [2].
Hana explained: “This shows that even from the dirtiest pond, we can find purity. Leadership is also about extracting good decisions from messy situations.”
🔊 Experiment 2: Ultrasonication Pretreatment
Another innovation caught Hana’s eye: ultrasonication.
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Using sound waves at 30% amplitude for 30 seconds, oil droplets trapped in solids were released.
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Recovery increased by 39.2% compared to untreated POME [3].
"Sometimes, to release hidden potential, you must shake things up — just like ultrasonication does with POME."
♻️ From Waste to Resource
Hana gathered her engineers around the effluent ponds.
"POME is not just waste," she told them. "It is a resource waiting for transformation. Just like in life — our failures, our rejected ideas, our overlooked moments — can be recovered into something valuable if we treat them wisely."
She saw POME as a metaphor for leadership:
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Sludge oil → imperfect people who still carry value.
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Biogas from POME → energy from hardship.
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Recovered oil → success hidden in rejection.
🌟 Leadership Reflection
That night, as the mill lights reflected on the ponds, Hana wrote in her journal:
“A leader must see beyond the surface. Where others see waste, we must see opportunity. Where others see rejection, we must see hidden oil. True leadership is about recovery — of people, of ideas, of value.”
Her team began to look differently at every drop of POME, no longer as a liability, but as a lesson in resilience and renewal.
📚 References
[1] MPOB (2019). Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Management.
[2] PubMed (2020). Recovery of residual oil from POME using polypropylene micro/nano fibers (PP-MNF).
[3] ResearchGate (2021). Enhanced oil recovery from POME using ultrasonication technique.
#pome #effluent #mpob #blog #blogger #kembarainsan #sludgeoil #palmacidoil
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