| Summary: |
Detoxification and degradation of olive mill wastewa-ter (OMW) by Fenton’s process along with chemical coagulation and precipitation was investigated. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of pH and treat-ment time on the COD, BOD5 and Total Phenolic Com-pounds (TPC) removal efficiency. The detoxification rate of OMW, after Fenton’s process application, was evaluated from the considerable improvement of the COD/BOD5 ratio in effluents and TPC removal rate that was achieved in all cases. Keeping the experimental conditions constant (pH 2.5, 20 °C, initial addition of 3 g FeSO4 7H2O and 3 ml H2O2 (60%) per L OMW, oxidation time 2 hours), COD reduc-tion was about 60%, and those of BOD5 about 40% and TPC almost 100%. From the overall results it can be con-cluded that the oxidation of OMW using Fenton’s process followed by biological treatment is an effective and feasi-ble detoxification methodology. |