Wastewater treatment dealing with the increasing quantity of bulky, complex and intractable POME is sometimes accorded least priority as far as the maintenance budget is concerned. This is especially so when the treatment system has come to a stage when it becomes unmanageable as it is no longer efficient. Desludging of effluent pond is necessary to maintain its effective digestion volume. Basically, desludging and other related works are recurrent costs to maintain the treatment system in working condition. Recently, a new paradigm of effluent treatment which focuses on zero-waste strategy has evolved and this is being pioneered by the innovation of the multi-effects evaporator system. This report attempts to determine whether the multi-effects evaporator is a feasible treatment system.

        In this report, the financial cost benefit analysis is highlighted to indicate such feasibility criteria and the conventional digestion method was used as a comparison. It is revealed that the evaporator system is a viable proposition and the effluent treatment itself was shown to be a financially viable processing subcentre of a mill. The time value of irrigation water as proxied by the nutritional content of POME was shown to be sufficient to pay back the initial capital outlay within seven years. A shorter pay back period of four years is expected for the digestion system because its capital cost is three times lower than the multi-effects evaporator system. The viability of the multiple-effect evaporator and the digestion system is further reaffirmed by their B:Cs which are more than unity and NPVs which continue to remain positive at higher discount rates. The IRRs are greater than the opportunity cost of capital; 15% for the multi-effects evaporator system and 26% for the conventional method. Nevertheless, the choice between the two system alternatives would largely depend on budgetary and land constraints.