Olive Oil Mill Wastewater Treatment by the Electro-Fenton Process

Nizar Bellakhal; Mehmet A. Oturan; Nihal Oturan; Mohamed Dachraoui

doi:10.1071/EN05080

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Previous Next Contents Vol 3(5)

Olive Oil Mill Wastewater Treatment by the Electro-Fenton Process

Nizar Bellakhal ^A ^C , Mehmet A. Oturan ^B ^D , Nihal Oturan ^B and Mohamed Dachraoui ^C

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Département de Chimie et de Biologie Appliquées, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie (INSAT), B. P. N°676, 1080 Tunis Cedex, Tunisie.

^B Université de Marne la Vallée, Laboratoire des Géomatériaux et Géologie de l'Ingénieur, Cité Descartes, 77454 Marne-la-Vallée, Cedex 2, France.

^C Laboratoire de Chimie Analytique et d’Electrochimie, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Campus Universitaire, 1060 Tunis, Tunisie.

^D Corresponding author. Email: mehmet.oturan@univ-mlv.fr

Environmental Chemistry 3(5) 345-349 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN05080
Submitted: 12 July 2006 Accepted: 4 September 2006 Published: 26 October 2006

Environmental Context. The combination of the Fenton’s reagent with electrochemistry (the electro-Fenton process) represents an efficient method for wastewater treatment. This study describes the use of this process to clean olive oil mill wastewater, which is a real environmental problem in Mediterranean countries. Contrary to the conventional methods which reduce the pollution by removing the pollutants from the wastewater, the electro-Fenton process is shown to fully destroy (mineralize) olive oil mill wastes in water without previous extraction and without addition of chemical reagents.

Abstract. Treatment of olive oil mill wastewater is one of the most important environmental problems for Mediterranean countries. This wastewater contains many organic compounds like polyphenols, which are very difficult to treat by classical techniques. An advanced electrochemical oxidation process, the electro-Fenton process, has been used as a way of removing chemical oxygen demand and colour intensity from olive oil mill wastewater. Vanillic acid, which has been selected as a model compound, and olive oil mill wastewater have been completely mineralized by the electro-Fenton process with a carbon felt cathode, using Fe²⁺ ions as the catalyst.

Keywords. : dissolved organic matter — electrochemistry (reactions) — industrial chemistry — water treatment

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the MJENR (Ministère de la Jeunesse, de l'Education Nationale et de la Recherche-France) under decision number of 03V398 to this work.

References

Olive Oil Mill Wastewater Treatment by the Electro-Fenton Process

Acknowledgements

Subscriber Login