BACKGROUND: Olive oil production is an important economical activity in the Aegean region of Turkey. However, the effluents of the olive oil producing mills with their high organic loads and toxic compounds are causing serious environmental problems. The anaerobic biological treatment of olive mill wastewater (OMWW) using the treatment plants of the regional industries could be a method of choice and within the scope of this study floccular and granular sludges were investigated in batch mode for their success in the treatment of OMWW while producing biogas.The major limitation of this treatment is the inhibition of methanogenic bacteria by the phenolic compounds in OMWW. Thus an integrated solution was suggested in which a pre-treatment step (dephenolization) was also introduced before biological step.
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