Effective fouling inhibition by critical flux based optimization methods on a NF membrane module for olive mill wastewater treatment

On the Purification of Agro-Industrial Wastewater by Membrane Technologies: The Case of Olive Mill Effluents

“…Both pretreatment processes yielded similar COD and biological oxygen demand (BOD 5 ) rejection eiciencies, but higher productivity was observed in the subsequent membrane-in-series process after locculation with AS. The same procedure was applied by these researchers to OMW-3 [8,10]. In this case, they also compared the results with two additional pretreatments, heterogeneous photocatalysis with titania nanocatalysts and aerobic digestion.…”

“…Membrane technology, in particular pressure-driven membrane processes comprising MF, UF, NF, and RO, can ofer a series of advantages in contrast with other separation processes, making them very promising and environmentally friendly for the puriication and remediation of OMW: needless of chemicals and reagents, e.g., solvents-to accomplish the desired separation and concentration; minor costs (capex and opex) and speciic energetic requirements than most conventional separation alternatives, upon signiicant puriication potentiality, selectivity, and recovery factors; and also easy scaling to the industry, low space necessities as they are modular, design simplicity, easy operation, and low maintenance needs [5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Desalinationany pretreatment [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Therefore, adequate and optimally designed pretreatment processes on each particular feedstock, in other words, pretreatment tailoring of membrane processes, must be developed in order to maximize productivity and minimize fouling.…”

“…Otherwise, membrane technology is modular, easy to design, thus easily scalable to the industry, requires low maintenance, and is environmentally friendly, providing high purifying capacity and selectivity [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. There has been a signiicant boost in the use of membranes for a plethora of applications and particularly in the ield of water and wastewater treatments in the last years.…”

“…In fact, membrane processes are becoming increasingly used in purifying processes for water and groundwater, to replace classic separation processes, as well as for the reclamation of eluents of diferent origins, especially those by-produced in agro-industries [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”