Application of the central composite design to mineralization of olive mill wastewater by the electro/FeII/persulfate oxidation method

The olive mill wastewater is a major environmental problem, which is waiting for effective treatment. In this study, the mineralization of olive mill wastewater was investigated using the electro/FeII/persulfate process. The central composite design was utilized to examine the effect of each experimental variables (concentration of persulphate and FeII, treatment time and constant current) on the mineralization of olive mill wastewater. The optimum chemical oxygen demand removal percentage was obtained as 71.2% where the reaction conditions were 200 mA current, 250 mM persulphate, 25 mM FeII, and 6 h reaction time. In addition, the maximum percentage of total phenolic removal and the energy consumption were 88% and 4.50 kWh/kgCOD, respectively, which were obtained at the same reaction conditions mentioned above. ANOVA test was used to examine the reliability of the experimental method. The R2 and adjusted R2 coefficients were obtained as 0.9634 and 0.9305, respectively. Optimum experimental parameters were determined and theoretical equations were obtained for the degradation of olive mill wastewater. For the treatment of olive mill wastewater, an environmentally friendly oxidation process was examined and the effect of each experimental variables was clearly demonstrated. The obtained data was optimized for future applications.