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The main environmental impact of the
operation of the olive oil mills during the olive oil production
period (October to March) is related with the management (treatment,
final disposal) of the produced wastewater, which is characterized by
extremely high concentrations of organic load, suspended solids and
oil. |
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The pollution parameter, which is mainly
responsible for the severe environmental impacts due to the final
disposal of the wastewater into natural receivers, is phenols.
Phenols existing in extremely high concentrations in the
aforementioned wastewater, act biotoxically while on the other hand
constitute a significant inhibitor of the biological processes which
take place in the conventional wastewater treatment methods. This is
the main reason why the common methods for the biological treatment of
wastewater do not operate in the desired performance rates when they
applied for the treatment of olive oil mills wastewater. On the other
hand during the last twenty years several treatment methods have been
developed and tested, which either demand significantly high cost for
the purchasing of the necessary equipment – cost which is insufferable
for the economic magnitude of the majority of the olive oil mills in
Greece –, or demand high operational and maintenance cost – a fact
that combined with the production of low or mid commercial value
products render the operation of such systems non-viable. |
