A Review of Waste Management Options in Olive Oil Production

Abstract

In this article, treatment and disposal alternatives of olive oil mill wastes and technical requirements for their management are covered. Waste characteristics, treatment options with regard to the economic feasibility, and challenges of existing waste disposal practices in olive growing countries are mentioned. Attention is drawn to present-day techniques of waste management. The search concerning the environmentally acceptable, economically feasible, and practically applicable methods of disposal of olive oil mill wastes is referred. In the management schemes, compliance with environmental regulations and economic and social benefits of the olive oil production are the goals that must be simultaneously achieved.

Wastewater disposal to landfill-sites: A synergistic solution for centralized management of olive mill wastewater and enhanced production of landfill gas

“…It is a complex acidic effluent (pH 4.0e5.5), mainly composed of water (83e96%), sugars (1e8%), nitrogenous compounds (0.5e2.4%), organic acids (0.5e1.5%), phenols, pectin and tannins (1.0e1.5%), lipids (0.02e1.0%) and inorganic substances (Hamdi, 1993;Sayadi et al, 2000). Different technologies are available for olive mill wastewater (OMW) treatment, based on combination of physical, chemical and biological processes (Azbar et al, 2004;Mantzavinos and Kalogerakis, 2005;Paraskeva and Diamandopoulos, 2006). Indeed, fully equipped treatment systems for olive mill wastewaters incur total costs of 5e 22 V/m 3 treated (Azbar et al, 2004).…”

“…Different technologies are available for olive mill wastewater (OMW) treatment, based on combination of physical, chemical and biological processes (Azbar et al, 2004;Mantzavinos and Kalogerakis, 2005;Paraskeva and Diamandopoulos, 2006). Indeed, fully equipped treatment systems for olive mill wastewaters incur total costs of 5e 22 V/m 3 treated (Azbar et al, 2004). This is the case for biological treatment (anaerobic, aerobic) combined with necessary pretreatment (physicochemical or mechanical).…”

“…This is the case for biological treatment (anaerobic, aerobic) combined with necessary pretreatment (physicochemical or mechanical). In case of natural evaporation systems the total costs are in the order of 0.65e 1.31 V/m 3 (Azbar et al, 2004).…”

“…Therefore, high-rate anaerobic digestion of OMW is possible after OMW dilution to COD 10e20 g/L (Azbar et al, 2004). Stable digester performance is also possible at high OLR [up to 7 kg/(m 3 d)] if preacidification is included (Blika et al, 2009).…”

Using olive mill wastewater to improve performance in producing electricity from domestic wastewater by using single-chamber microbial fuel cell

“…According to olive fruit variety, cultivation conditions and extraction method used, OMW organic load (TCOD) may vary from 40 to 220 g L À1 , with a polyphenols content ranging from 200 to 8000 mg L À1 (Azbar et al, 2004). Within this range polyphenols can potentially have inhibition effect on bacteria activity involved in OMW biological treatment (Ntaikou et al, 2009).…”