Pretreatment of Olive Oil Mill Wastewater by Two Different Applications of Fenton Oxidation Processes

The removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and phenol from olive oil mill wastewaters (OOMW) was investigated experimentally by using conventional Fenton (CFP) and Fenton type processes (FTP) with zero valent iron (ZVI). Different operational parameters such as initial pH, Fe 2+ , Fe°, and H 2 O 2 concentrations were examined. Kinetic studies in terms of COD and phenol removals for both CFP and FTP were performed. The original pH value (4.6) of OOMW for CFP was found as the optimum pH. The determined optimum conditions are [Fe 2+ ] = 1500 mg L -1 , [H 2 O 2 ] = 1750 mg L -1 , and pH = 4.6 for CFP; [Fe 0 ] = 2000 mg L -1 , [H 2 O 2 ] = 2000 mg L -1 , and pH = 3 for FTP. 82.4% COD and 62% phenol removals were performed under the optimum conditions by CFP, while 82% COD and 63.4% phenol were removed by FTP. According to the results of kinetic studies, it was observed that COD and phenol were removed by FTP more rapidly, compared to CFP. Consequently, it was determined that both CFP and FTP were effective processes for the pretreatment of OOMW.