Modelling of olive mill wastewater characteristics

A synthesis of the analytical work carried out on the characterisation of Olive Mill Wastewater (OMW) is given, covering articles published over the last 30 years, being excluded all data that didn't account phenol quantification. Due to the wide range of the data on OMW characterisation found in the literature, results on Chemical Oxygen Demand, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Total Solids and Volatile Solids are summarised and correlations between them and with polyphenol content are sought. The aim of this work is to use the modelling of the analytical parameters to define working limits, in order to be able to predict and monitor successfully an OMW treatment. Scale-up from previously published data will be considered, trying to overcome the case-by-case studies found in the literature. This modelling also contributes to obtain a good experimental performance with a specific OMW. Portuguese OMW characterisation for the aforementioned parameters is carried out, as well as the validation of the correlations found for the parameters in the literature.