Effects of the agronomic use of olive oil mill wastewater: Field experiment

Land Application-Based Olive Mill Wastewater Μanagement

“…It is also possible a gradual adaptation to OMW application for soil microbial communities. Land application of OMW enhanced SOM, in agreement with the findings of previous studies [3,6], an effect that was observed throughout the examined soil profile (up to 75 cm soil depth). This effect is attributed to the presence of recalcitrant compounds in OMW and/or the effect of certain retention mechanisms, such as the adsorption onto minerals and/or occlusion in clay microstructures that are inaccessible to decomposers and enzymes [9,10].…”

“…Previous studies report changes in the composition of soil microorganisms [7,15,33] and enzymes activities [13,34] involved in phenol degradation, indicating that OMW may favor soil microorganisms and activities specialized to degradation of phenolic compounds. Similarly to our study, under field conditions, it has been reported significant reduction of phenols, described by a first order kinetics with the constant value (K) to range from −0.014 to −0.018 per day [3]. However, these values correspond to half-life time of about 15 to 32 days which are considerably lower to the removal rates observed in the present study in which 15-day interval resulted in approximately 80% removal.…”

“…Around 6 × 10 6 m 3 of OMW is produced worldwide at a short period, between November and March, of which 98% is produced in the Mediterranean basin [1]. In areas that have not yet adopted the newer two-phase extraction technique (olive oil-liquid pomace) the most common adopted practices to manage OMW remain the storage in evaporation ponds [2] and the direct application onto land [3]. Spreading of OMW onto land is considered a promising low-cost practice since most of the Mediterranean olive-oil producing countries suffer from water deficiency and deterioration of terrestrial and aquatic environment [3,4].…”

“…In areas that have not yet adopted the newer two-phase extraction technique (olive oil-liquid pomace) the most common adopted practices to manage OMW remain the storage in evaporation ponds [2] and the direct application onto land [3]. Spreading of OMW onto land is considered a promising low-cost practice since most of the Mediterranean olive-oil producing countries suffer from water deficiency and deterioration of terrestrial and aquatic environment [3,4]. Italy, Portugal, and Catalonia have already regulated land application of OMW allowing, however, low application rates in order to prevent toxicity phenomena in soil and crops [3,5].…”

“…Spreading of OMW onto land is considered a promising low-cost practice since most of the Mediterranean olive-oil producing countries suffer from water deficiency and deterioration of terrestrial and aquatic environment [3,4]. Italy, Portugal, and Catalonia have already regulated land application of OMW allowing, however, low application rates in order to prevent toxicity phenomena in soil and crops [3,5].…”