Treatment and Decolourization of Olive Mill Wastewater Using Magnetic Assisted Nanoparticle Adsorption Technology

Thumbnail Image
Date
2014-05
Authors
A. Arar, Laith
Abu Ghanim, Mahmoud M.
Dwaikat, Marwan S.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Olive mill wastewater (OMW) is an environmental concern that have been highlighted as a serious environmental problem in the Mediterranean basin countries because of its high organic load and phytotoxic and antibacterial phenolic compounds which resist biological degradation. In addition, this type of wastewater represents a huge challenge for the conventional wastewater treatment techniques. Nonetheless, a number of physical, chemical and biological treatment methods for OMW have been reported in literature. These methods, however, are limited because they are too expensive to find a wide application, ineffective in meeting stringent effluent standards, and resulted in huge amount of sludge. Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticle technology has emerged as a fascinating area of interest for removal of various contaminants from wastewater effluents. Iron-oxide nanoparticles are attractive for wastewater treatment fortwo important reasons. First, nanoparticles can remove contaminants from wastewater rapidly.Second, this magnetic type of nanoparticles could be separated easily using a magnet after finishing treatment process. In this project we aimed at investigating the effectiveness of the magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in the removal of large organic contaminants from OMW. Batch-mode was applied on OMW and model molecule to determine the effect of contact time, solution pH, coexisting contaminants and the adsorption isotherm. Results showed that the adsorption was fast for both OMW and model molecule and the adsorption reach equilibrium within less than 30 and 10 min respectively. The adsorption equilibrium data fit very well to the Brunauer-Emmet-Teller Model (BET), indicating multilayers adsorption. Functionalizing γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles with methylene blue has a significant effect on enhancing adsorption process. The adsorption of major pollutant contaminants was associated to an efficient removal of coexisting contaminants such as heavy metals and free ions. The adsorption of OMW showed a huge dependence on pH of the solution, while the model molecule adsorption was independent on pH. Finally, continuous-mode process was tested successfully using a packed bed column that combines sand filtration with magnetic nanoparticles to decolorize OMW effluent. After seeing the successful achievement of integrating nanoparticles with packed bed filtration, a preliminary plant and design wastewater treatment facility process were considered in this study. Process capital cost and annual operating cost were estimated to be 12,226 and 476 USD/year, respectively.
Description
Keywords
Citation