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Fertilizer industries are one of the most critical industries to support agriculture industries in Malaysia. A significant amount of wastewater also producing along with fertilizer production. The wastewater contains ammoniacal nitrogen, NH3−N, and causes a real treat to fish due to its toxicity. Thus, this study aims to determine the performance of ultrafiltration process removal of ammoniacal nitrogen from fertilizer wastewater incorporated with bio-adsorption process by using different feed solution chemistry and temperature. The sample was obtained from a fertilizer company located at Gurun, Kedah. The obtained sample contains NH3-N and solely used for this study only. Membrane material of polyethersulfone (PES) was used for this study. As for the bio-adsorption process, bio-adsorbent which made from banana peel was used. The removal of NH3-N was investigated at solution pH values of 10.30 and 7 for different temperature. The results showed the highest NH3−N removal was 80.07% obtained under condition of p. 10.30 and 30°C. Hence, this combined process is feasible for significantly removing NH3−N from fertilizer wastewater. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used for surface membrane morphology characterization. Atomic force microscope (AFM) was employed to investigate membrane surface roughness. Results of AFM indicated that membrane fouling becomes more severe when surface roughness increasing, which was measured by the surface area difference where magnitude and frequency of surface peaks were taken to accounts. Flux decline was correlated to the surface roughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice husk is one of the most agricultural wastes in the milling process. It contains the highest amount composition of silica (SiO2) compared with other agricultural waste. Rice husk can be utilized to produce various types of useful renewable resources, which contain silica (SiO2) husk. Rice husk was collected from Kuala Kedah, Kedah. Acetic acid (CH3COOH) has been used as leaching solution. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of acetic acid on rice husk. Raw rice husk and leached rice husk were subjected to thermal treatment at 800 °C for 3 hours in the furnace. Raw rice husk and leached rice husk has been analysed using X-Ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The highest mass percent silica (SiO2) content which is 97.4% under the optimum condition with 5% of acetic acid, 90 °C solution temperature, and 30 minutes stirring time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]