Abstract
Agro-industrial wastewaters are characterized by the presence of multiple organic and inorganic contaminants of environmental concern. The high pollutant load, the large volumes produced, and the seasonal variability makes the treatment of these wastewaters an environmental challenge. A wide range of wastewater treatment processes are available, however the continuous search for cost-effective treatment methods is necessary to comply with the legal limits of release in sewer systems and/or in natural waters. This review presents a state-of-the-art of the application of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) to some worldwide generated agro-industrial wastewaters, such as olive mill, winery and pulp mill wastewaters. Studies carried out just with AOPs or combined with physico-chemical or biological treatments were included in this review. The main remarks and factors affecting the treatment efficiency such as chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), total organic carbon (TOC), and total polyphenols removal are discussed. From all the studies, the combination of processes led to better treatment efficiencies, regardless the wastewater type or its physico-chemical characteristics.
Highlights
One of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century is the supply of safe drinking water for the millions of people all over the world
In addition to classical processes, it is possible to use advanced technologies like membrane separation processes, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, and advanced oxidation processes, which are being increasingly tried for wastewater treatments [4,5]
The first effluent is generated during the olives washing procedure, and another one arises from the olive oil extraction process, which is composed by the humidity of fruit coupled with some water used in manufacture [21]
Summary
One of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century is the supply of safe drinking water for the millions of people all over the world. Inisorder to prevent inadequate disposal of these wastewaters on and natural water courses or in the soil a common environmental pollution, agro-industrial wastewaters should be properly treated aiming at either situation which poses a potential risk of contamination to superficial and groundwater aquifers [6,7]. To effectively treat recalcitrant effluents, treatment should involve the degradation as well as stable oxidation state: water, carbon dioxide, and the oxidized inorganic anions of any heteroatoms the mineralization of organic contaminants. Biologicaland treatment processes can be aaffect suitable option, some issues like toxicity, lowthese biodegradability and seasonal production treatment for efficiency With these treatments is not possible to achieve the legal affect limitsthe of discharge this kind of effluents.
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