Sequential treatment of olive oil mill wastewater with adsorption and biological and photo-Fenton oxidation

Abstract

Olive oil mill wastewater (OMWW), a recalcitrant pollutant, has features including high phenolic content and dark color; thereby, several chemical or physical treatments or biological processes were not able to remediate it. In this study, the treatment efficiencies of three treatments, including adsorption, biological application, and photo-Fenton oxidation were sequentially evaluated for OMWW. Adsorption, biological treatment, and photo-Fenton caused decreasing phenolic contents of 48.69 %, 59.40 %, and 95 %, respectively. However, after three sequential treatments were performed, higher reduction percentages in phenolic (total 99 %) and organic contents (90 %) were observed. Although the studied fungus has not induced significant color reduction, photo-Fenton oxidation was considered to be an attractive solution, especially for color reduction. Besides, toxicity of OMWW treatment was significantly reduced.