A new process for the management of olive oil mill waste water and recovery of natural antioxidants.

The high polyphenol content of the wastewater is the major environmental problem caused by the olive mills. A pilot scale system for the treatment of the olive oil mills wastewater was developed aiming at the recovery of high added value-contained polyphenols and the reduction of the environmental problems. The treatment system consists of three main successive sections:  The first one includes successive filtration stages aiming at the gradual reduction of the wastewater suspended solids up to a limit of 25 μm. The second section includes passing of the filtered wastewater through a series of adsorbent resins (XAD16 and XAD7HP) in order to achieve the deodoring and decolorization of the wastewater and the removal/ recovery of the polyphenol and lactone content. The third section of the procedure includes the thermal evaporation and recovery of the organic solvents mixture, which has been used in the resin regeneration process, and finally the separation of the polyphenols and other organic substance cont...