Recovery and removal of phenolic compounds from Olive mill wastewater(Graduation Project)

To recover phenolic compounds from olive mill wastewater (a dark, acidic matrix made

up of water, organic substances, including carbohydrates, pectins, mucilage, lignin, and

tannins (which give it a characteristic dark colour), lipids and inorganic substances),

three separation methods (solvent extraction, membrane filtration, and adsorption

utilizing Date palm trunk fiber (DPTF)) were performed. The effects of adsorbent dose,

size, and adsorption period were investigated for the adsorption experiment, whereas

the effects of the extraction time, solvent to water ratio, and feed pressure were

investigated for both the solvent extraction and membrane experiments, respectively.

Four standard solutions of phenol and catechol were prepared to quantify the

concentrations of them using gas chromatography analysis (GC). The results

demonstrate that the fiber was ineffective in recovering catechol and phenol regardless

of the adsorbent dose, size, or even the adsorption period, with nearly 0% recovery,

whereas ethyl acetate and membrane filtration were quite effective in recovering

catechol from OMW, with recovery efficiencies of 80% and 40%, respectively, unlike

hexane, which was also ineffective in the catechol-phenol recovery with almost 0%

recovery.