Combined process for the treatment of olive oil mill wastewater: absorption on sawdust and combustion of the impregnated sawdust.

Olive oil mill wastewater (OMWW) generated by the olive oil extraction industry constitutes a major pollutant, causing a severe environmental threats because of the high chemical oxygen demand and the high content of polyphenol. This work studied a combined process of absorption on sawdust, a low-cost renewable absorbents, and an energetic valorisation via combustion was studied. The thermal behaviour of different OMWW/sawdust blends was studied under inert and oxidative atmosphere from 20 to 900 degrees C using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).