There has been considerable confusion in recent years over the carriage of Palm oil mill effluent, and even exactly what it is. The ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) has recently issued a guidance document on POME which clarifies that POME is the “unavoidable wastewater arising from palm oil production at a palm oil mill”, and POME oil is the oil recovered from that wastewater.
In October 2021 the ESPH working group agreed to carriage requirements proposed by Finland in respect of two POME products, namely Palm oil mill effluent oil and Palm oil mill effluent oil fatty acid distillate. These submissions had been made following evaluation of the data provided to the GESAMP group of scientists and the assignment of GESAMP Hazard Profiles. Both products were assessed as pollution category Y and ship type 2, and it was agreed that the previous entry for Palm oil mill effluent technical oil with pollution category X that had been agreed earlier in the year as a precautionary approach should be deleted. The two new entries will appear in List 1 of MEPC.2/Circ. 27.