The industrial sector of olive oil production generates large quantities of liquid effluents called oil mill wastewaters (OMW).
These acidic OMW are very loaded with organic matter and polyphenols in the form of humic acid, which is released into
the natural environment without any prior treatment. This will seriously harm the quality of the water and pose a major
ecological problem. Therefore, the objective of our work is to test the performance of the coagulation–flocculation process
by aluminium sulphate (AS) in the elimination of certain parameter characteristics of OMW. These are humic acid (HA),
chemical oxygen demand (COD) and turbidity. Different parameters were taken into consideration, such as the effect of AS
doses, pH and the variation of powdered activated carbon (PAC) used as an aid coagulant. The X-ray diffraction (XRD),
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterized the solid phase of OMW
before treatment and the sludge of the optimal dose of the coagulant. After dilution of the OMW to 1/100, our results clearly
showed that treatment reduced the polluting load of water by 67.31 and 71.15%, respectively, for HA and COD, and the
turbidity is 82.45%. The pH of the optimal treatment is in acidic medium less than or equal to 5. The use of PAC has led to
a remarkable improvement in the removal yields, which exceeds 80% for both HA and COD.
Citation
Djamel TEMIM ,
, (2022-06-06), Removal the pollutants of oil mill wastewater by coagulation–flocculation in order to protect the aquatic environment: Sludge characterization, Chemical Papers,
Vol:76, Issue:, pages:6891–6902, Marek Baráth, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
