Chapter 6 - Industrial case studies on the detoxificaton of OMWW using Fenton oxidation process followed by biological processes for energy and compost production

Abstract

This chapter aims to illustrate industrially developed cases for treating olive mill waste waters (OMWW) as a result of 35 years (1980–2015) of research conducted in the Laboratory of Organic Chemical Technology in the School of Chemical Engineering at the NTUA. The developed research has been focused on applying new chemical and biological technics and technologies, such as cocomposting of OMWW with Olive Kernel and/or anaerobic digestion after detoxification of OMWW using Fenton reagents (Fe2+, H2O2). Laboratory-pilot- and finally industrial-scale case studies in actual olive mills for treating OMWW are presented. The objective of this chapter is to highlight the most promising technologies applied to olive mill wastes for establishing a feasible process for treating OMWW that produces marketable by-products, such as bioenergy, organic fertilizers, and lipids under clean technologies and an overall biorefinery concept.