Abstract
Previous works (Beccari et al. 1999b; Beccari et al. 2001a; Beccari et al. 2001b)on the anaerobic treatment of olive oil mill effluents (OME) have shown: (a) apre-treatment based on the addition of Ca(OH)2 and bentonite was able toremove lipids (i.e. the most inhibiting substances present in OME) almostquantitatively; (b) the mixture OME – Ca(OH)2 – bentonite, fed to amethanogenic reactor without providing an intermediate phase separation,gave way to high biogas production even at very low dilution ratios; (c) theeffluent from the methanogenic reactor still contained significant concentrationsof residual phenolic compounds (i.e. the most biorecalcitrant substances present inOME). Consequently, this paper was aimed at evaluating the fate of the phenolicfractions with different molecular weights during the sequence of operations(adsorption on bentonite, methanogenic digestion, activated sludge post-treatment).The results show that a very high percentage (above 80%) of the phenolic fractionbelow 500 D is removed by the methanogenic process whereas the phenolic fractionsabove 1,000 D are significantly adsorbed on bentonite; the 8-day activated sludgepost-treatment allows an additional removal of about 40% of total filtered phenoliccompounds. The complete sequence of treatments was able to remove more than the96% of the phenolic fraction below 500 D (i.e. the most toxic fraction towards plantgermination). Preliminary respirometric tests show low level of inhibition exerted bythe effluent from the methanogenic reactor on aerobic activated sludges taken fromfull-scale municipal wastewater plants.
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Beccari, M., Carucci, G., Lanz, A.M. et al. Removal of molecular weight fractions of COD and phenolic compounds in an integrated treatment of olive oil mill effluents. Biodegradation 13, 401–410 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022818229452
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022818229452