The waste products derived from olive oil extraction are an aqueous effluent (vegetation water) and a solid residue, mainly containing the olive skin and stone (olive husk). Biological purification of the vegetation water is particularly difficult because it contains solids in suspension, and a high concentration of polluting organic compounds and mineral salts. In addition, since the recovery of oil by solvent extraction from the olive husk is no longer a profitable process, the olive husk has become a waste product that must be disposed of. In this work, samples of vegetation water (VW) from olive oil mills were separated by evaporation into an aqueous liquid (80-90% of the initial volume), that could then be purified by a traditional biological process, and a residue in which about 98% of the organic load was concentrated. The properties of the concentrated VW residue and of the olive husk suggested the possibility of using a mixture of the two as an efficient fuel to provide the heat for the evaporation stage. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Treatment of olive oil industry wastes
VITOLO, SANDRA;PETARCA, LUIGI;BRESCI, BRUNO
1999-01-01
Abstract
The waste products derived from olive oil extraction are an aqueous effluent (vegetation water) and a solid residue, mainly containing the olive skin and stone (olive husk). Biological purification of the vegetation water is particularly difficult because it contains solids in suspension, and a high concentration of polluting organic compounds and mineral salts. In addition, since the recovery of oil by solvent extraction from the olive husk is no longer a profitable process, the olive husk has become a waste product that must be disposed of. In this work, samples of vegetation water (VW) from olive oil mills were separated by evaporation into an aqueous liquid (80-90% of the initial volume), that could then be purified by a traditional biological process, and a residue in which about 98% of the organic load was concentrated. The properties of the concentrated VW residue and of the olive husk suggested the possibility of using a mixture of the two as an efficient fuel to provide the heat for the evaporation stage. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
