Treatment of Olive Oil Mill Wastewater by UV-Light and UV/H2O2 System

Resumen

Olive oil mills generates large volumes of wastewaters (OMW). The absence of legislation, which managesand obligates the treatment of OMW has led to the creation of large build-evaporation ponds as a solution for thisenvironmental problem. The function of these ponds is the evaporation of wastewater during summer months. However,evaporation isn't enough to eliminate all wastewater in the rafts and this fact allows the generation of a great volume ofconcentrate wastewater with high organic load (COD = 0.5- 38 g O2/L). The environmental impact produced by theaccumulation of polluted wastewater demands the design of processes for OMW treatment. In this sense, the influenceof ultraviolet light (UV) and the combined system of UV/H2O2, in the degradation of organic matter of OMW, werestudied. UV-light application at a short time (<30 min) implies a removal values in COD = 15-22%, total carbon (TC), totalorganic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) in the range 34% to 43%. The turbidity elimination was registered in therange 68% to 70%. In the case of combined UV/H2O2 system the removal percentages were 40-48% for COD, 39.4-51.9% for TC, 33.0-48.0% for TOC, 37.0-53.1% for TN, and 66.8-93.4% for turbidity.