Wet air oxidation of wastewater from olive oil mills

The oxidation of wastewater from olive oil mills has been carried out in th e liquid phase at high temperatures and pressures. Synthetic urban wastewat er has been used to dilute the raw effluent (dilution rate 1:10). Experimen ts conducted using air as the oxygen source showed a positive effect of the previous neutralization of the wastewater if compared to the oxidation con ducted at the original pH of the effluent (pH = 5.3), In terms of chemical oxygen demand depletion and final biodegradability characteristics of the e ffluent, the use of free radical promoters, for instance hydrogen peroxide, resulted in a significant enhancement of the process. Experiments complete d in the presence of two commercially available catalysts (platinum support ed on alumina and copper oxide supported on active carbon) showed not only an improvement in the chemical oxygen demand removal rate hut also a high d egree of the mineralization of the wastewater contaminant load.