Innovative approach for olive mill wastewater reclamation: integrated heterogeneous Fenton oxidation using olive mill solid residues and membrane filtration processes

Resum

The management of effluents generated by the olive oil industry – olive mill wastewater (OMW) – poses a complex and persistent environmental challenge to this sector due to OMW intrinsic properties, including high organic load, acidic pH, and presence of toxic and hardlybiodegradable substances such as phenolic compounds. The main goal of this work was to study the oxidative treatment of OMW by the heterogeneous Fentonlike process (also known as catalytic wet peroxide oxidation, CWPO), repurposing solid by products of the same agroindustry as precursors for the preparation of Fesupported carbonbased materials. Envisaging a circular economy model for the sector, the integration of a downstream direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) unit was also evaluated to potentially recover water suitable to be reused in the same industry (e.g., for crops irrigation or machinery/facilities washing activities).