Innovative solutions for reduction of olive mill wastewater pollution

Olive oil is also an important activity for the inhabitants of Al Jouf, KSA. The production of olive oil is accompanied by the emission of wastes (liquid and solid). These wastes are discharged directly without treatment. This research work aims to study the treatment of such waste by the integration of physical and chemical methods. The organic loads expressed by chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) of the produced wastewater (olive mill wastewater) were evaluated. The quantity of wastes emitted from the three phase centrifuge decanters was found to be higher than that emitted from the two-phase centrifuge decanters. The olive mill wastewater (OMWW) was treated using plane sedimentation (PS) combined with advanced oxidation treatment. The effluent from AO was splitted and treated using complex sand filtration unit (CSF) and modified trickling filter (MTF) in parallel manner. The results indicated that the concentration of COD, BOD, TSS, oil & grease and phenol was reduced greatly by more than 67%, 75%, 20%, 97% and 91% and 65%, 77 3%, 96% and 86%, respectively for the effluent of the three phase OMWW. This work supports the application of such treatment technique for reducing the environmental threats of olive mill waste effluents.