Decontamination of olive mill wastewater with tow natural materials: Sand and starch

Fatma Chkili and Manef Abderra

Abstract

This paper evaluated the removal of poly-phenols from olive mill wastewater in a batch reactor as monitored by adsorption using tow natural materials, namely sand and commercial starch. It was found that for the same experimental conditions (similar OMW, stirring rate, contact time and initial pH), starch is more suitable for this treatment. This physicochemical process effectively allowed the removal of more than 70% of phenolic components present in the OMW solution while the treatment with sand lowered their concentration by only 45%. The effect of pH and adsorbent concentration was also studied and similar important results were attained with the adsorbents at specific pH. Furthermore, kinetic models and adsorption isotherms were determined for each adsorbent.