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Near infrared (NIR) reflectance and Raman spectrometry were compared for determination of the oil and water content of olive pomace, a by-product in olive oil production. To enable comparison of the spectral techniques the same sample sets were used for calibration (1.74-3.93% oil, 48.3-67.0% water) and for validation (1.77-3.74% oil, 50.0-64.5% water). Several partial least squares (PLS) regression models were optimized by cross-validation with cancellation groups, including different spectral pretreatments for each technique. Best models were achieved with first-derivative spectra for both oil and water content. Prediction results for an independent validation set were similar for both techniques. The values of root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) were 0.19 and 0.20-0.21 for oil content and 2.0 and 1.8 for water content, using Raman and NIR, respectively. The possibility of improving these results by combining the information of both techniques was also tested. The best models constructed using the appended spectra resulted in slightly better performance for oil content (RMSEP 0.17) but no improvement for water content.

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Galvanic sludge wastes (GSW) are produced by the physico-chemical treatments of wastewater generated by electroplating plants. These materials have a significant potential for the production of clay ceramic bricks. This paper focuses on the viability of the inertization of heavy metals from GSW mixed with clays. The original materials *Revised manuscript with no changes marked Click here to view linked References were obtained by mixing three types of raw clay (red, yellow and black) in equal parts with GSW. These mixtures were characterized by XRD, XRF, and chemical elemental analysis CHNS. The dosage of GSW in the Clay-GSW bricks was up to 5 wt%. The bricks were then manufactured using conventional processes. The influence of the amount of GSW was evaluated after firing the clay-GSW composites at 950ºC for 1 hour. The engineering properties of the fired samples, such as density, water absorption, open porosity, water suction and compressive strength, with and without the GSW, were determined. The incorporation of GSW into the clay mix clearly decreased the linear shrinkage and bulk density of the bricks in comparison with the fired clay used as a control. These GSW-clay composites also showed lower open porosity. According to the results obtained for the bulk density of the bricks, samples with GSW addition showed slightly lower values of open porosity than clay bodies, indicating that the GSW-clay samples had slightly higher closed porosity values. This was also shown by SEM. The open porosity, SEM and pore size distribution tests indicated that the porosity generated by the addition of GSW was mainly closed and, therefore, GSW bricks had excellent mechanical properties. The environmental risks of the incorporation of GSW, rich in heavy metals (Cr, Zn, Ni and others), to a clay matrix was evaluated by leaching tests of the fired products. The results indicated a successful inertization of the pollutants.

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