Olive mill wastewater (OMW) treatment by using ferric oxide dephenolization and chemical oxygen demand removal

Abstract

In Jordan and as in many other Mediterranean countries olive oil production is one of the major agricultural production, it is estimated that the annual production of olive oil in Jordan approximately 21.5 thousand tons per year. O the other hand the process of olive oil extraction generates around 200,000 m3 of olive mill wastewater (OMW) and it is considered as a a serious problem in. In this study the real sample of wastewater is collected from the outlet at the mill near by the university campus. The analysis of this collected wastewater has shown a very high Chemical Oxygen Demand COD (253.648 kg l-1) and Bilogical Oxygen Demand, BOD (89.365 kg l-1). These high BOD and COD reveals a real need to treat it before sent to municipal sewage. The study also focuses on reducing an organ phenol component which has been measured and found equal to 0.5698 mg l-1. The use of Ferric Oxide in the form of nanoparticles was successfully used to oxide organic phenols from olive mill wastewater (OMW) and has reduced to 0.002 mg l-1. The results show that 0.1 g of Ferric Oxide in the form of nanoparticles when mixed with sand has the capacity to remove the phenols from the collected samples. The removal percentage obtained here reached 97%. When the mixture of ferric nanoparticles used with sand in a ratio of 0.1 g Fe2O3 and 1 kg of sand, the removal capacity of organic phenols has reached to 99%, and COD () in percentage of 97.2%. The results show an interesting behavior towards other minerals that exists in solution, that ferric nanoparticles have a good capacity to remove Cr+3Cu+3 K+Ca+2Na+ minerals exist in wastewater.