Separation Science and Technology, Vol.45, No.11, 1529-1537, 2010
Electrolytic Pretreatment of Olive Mill Wastewater (OMW) for Methane to Hydrogen Production
Olive mill wastewater (OMW) is an abundant agro-industrial effluent in the Mediterranean countries where the biggest olive oil production occurs. OMW can be used as a renewable energy source for hydrogen production. Hydrogen can be steam reformed from biogas produced by biodegradation of the waste. Olive mill wastewater has high content of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and phenols which render it from being used directly to anaerobic treatment. In this study filtration followed by electrochemical oxidation is being evaluated as pretreatment strategies for COD reduction and Total Phenols removal from typical olive mill wastewater for subsequent utilization in hydrogen production. Undiluted OMW electrolyzed with Ti/Ta/Pt/Ir anode for 3 h showed that Energy consumption can be as low as 8.97 kWh/kg CODr achieving 50.7% TPh reduction and 62.85% COD reduction.