Environ Sci Pollut Res

DOI 10.1007/s11356-012-1212-6

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Sequential treatment of olive oil mill wastewater with adsorption

and biological and photo-Fenton oxidation
Pınar Aytar & Serap Gedikli & Mesut Sam & Burhanettin
Farizoğlu & Ahmet Çabuk

Received: 23 June 2012 / Accepted: 17 September 2012

# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Abstract Olive oil mill wastewater (OMWW), a recalci- Keywords Sequential treatment . Olive oil mill wastewater .
trant pollutant, has features including high phenolic content Adsorption . Biological treatment . Photo-Fenton oxidation .
and dark color; thereby, several chemical or physical treat- Toxicity
ments or biological processes were not able to remediate it.
In this study, the treatment efficiencies of three treatments,
including adsorption, biological application, and photo-
Introduction
Fenton oxidation were sequentially evaluated for OMWW.
Adsorption, biological treatment, and photo-Fenton caused
Olive oil mill wastewater (OMWW) is a highly toxic efflu-
decreasing phenolic contents of 48.69 %, 59.40 %, and
ent obtained from the extraction process by the olive oil
95 %, respectively. However, after three sequential treat-
industry and creates a major problem in Turkey as in other
ments were performed, higher reduction percentages in phe-
Mediterranean countries (Carlos Ruiz et al. 2002). This
nolic (total 99 %) and organic contents (90 %) were
effluent is characterized by an unpleasant smell, dark color,
observed. Although the studied fungus has not induced
and high organic matter content such as sugars, tannins,
significant color reduction, photo-Fenton oxidation was
polyphenols, polyalcohols, pectins, and lipids (Dias et al.
considered to be an attractive solution, especially for color
2004). As reported by several authors, more than 30 pheno-
reduction. Besides, toxicity of OMWW treatment was sig-
lic compounds have been detected in OMWW (De Marco et
nificantly reduced.
al. 2007). Besides, phenolic and aromatic compounds have
been considered as important contributors to toxicity of
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues
OMWW (Martínez et al. 2005; Yeşilada et al. 1998, 1999).
P. Aytar : S. Gedikli OMWWs are potential sources of pollution and eutrophica-
Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences,
tion for natural water bodies. The presence of pollutant
Eskişehir Osmangazi University,
Eskişehir, Turkey organic matter in OMWW puts microbial activities at risk
in the environment, when it is applied integrally to the soil
M. Sam or discharged in large amount directly into rivers and/or
Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science,
lakes (Sabbah et al. 2004). The organic load of OMWW is
Aksaray University,
Aksaray, Turkey so high with biological oxygen demand (BOD) up to100g
L−1 and chemical oxygen demand (COD) up to 200 gL−1.
B. Farizoğlu These values may be found as 300 times higher than in a
Environmental Engineering Department, Engineering Architecture
typical municipal sewage (Saez et al. 1992).
Faculty, Balıkesir University,
Balıkesir, Turkey Proposed physicochemical processes include evaporation
ponds and lagoons (Kotronarou and Mendez 2003).
A. Çabuk (*) According to Canizares et al., several advanced oxidation
Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science,
technologies including conductive-diamond electrooxida-
Eskişehir Osmangazi University,
Eskişehir, Turkey tion, ozonation, and Fenton oxidation were studied
e-mail: [email protected] (Canizares et al. 2007) and have not been efficient in
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

decreasing the high COD and toxicity of OMWW. Several aerobic treatment with T. versicolor, and photo-Fenton ox-
authors have already combined chemical and biological idation, was carried out. Finally, we obtained the compara-
processes for this wastewater treatment (Justino et al. tive results with literature findings. According to our results,
2009; Ergul et al. 2011). A well-designed sequential treat- 99 % of phenol removal and 90 % decrease in organic
ment consisting of various chemical, physical, and biologi- contents were totally obtained, not including the require-
cal processes represent a better solution (Bettazzi et al. ment of adaptation phase and addition of any nutrients,
2006). Adsorption, as a simple and relatively economical which these findings, using three remediation methods in-
method, is a widely used technique in the removal of pollu- cluding adsorption, biological operation, and photo-Fenton
tants. Various inexpensive minerals (i.e., clays, zeolite, etc.) reaction, demonstrated; the same findings were not demon-
have been used for removal of color and phenol adsorption strated in the previous studies relating to this wastewater in
from OMWW (Santi et al. 2008; Eroğlu et al. 2008). the literature. Besides, toxicity values were significantly
In general, biological treatment of OMWW has been reduced after all treatments.
studied using lignin-degrading organisms known as white-
rot fungi that have an ability to remove phenolic substances
which have lignin-like structure and recalcitrant compounds Materials and methods
through their biomasses or extracellular enzymes including
laccase, manganese-dependent peroxidase, and lignin per- Characteristics of OMWW
oxidase produced by these fungi. Several white-rot fungi,
Phanerochaete chrysosporium (Justino et al. 2009; Dhouib The experiments were performed with OMWW that was
et al. 2006), Trametes versicolor, Funalia trogii (Ergül et al. provided from a three-phase plant (Edremit, a part of
2009; Yesilada et al. 1999; Aytar et al. 2011; Apohan and Marmara region of Turkey) exhibiting the following charac-
Yesilada 2011), Pleurotus spp. (Justino et al. 2009), teristics: pH, 4.8; COD, 59.149 gL−1; total phenols 3.653 g
Lentinula edodes (D'Annibale et al. 1998), Pycnoporus L−1. OMWW was centrifuged (9,000×g, 20 min), filter-
coccineus (Jaouani et al. 2005), and Coriolopsis polyzona sterilized, and stored at −20 °C until the next experiment
(Jaouani et al. 2005), and species of Cerrena, Byssochlamys, process. Characteristics of OMWW were shown in Table 1.
Lasiodiplodia, and Bionectria (Mann et al. 2010) have
been used for potential applications in the biological First treatment of OMWW with different adsorbents
treatment of OMWW.
Fenton's reagent is a well-known advanced oxidation Montmorillonite, clinoptilolite, pumice, perlite, and fly
process involving Fe2+- and Fe3+-mediated catalytic decom- ash have been used for removal of color and phenol
position of H2O2 under acidic pH (2–5) and combines with adsorption from OMWW which was obtained from
ultraviolet radiation to produce the highly oxidative OH− Balıkesir, Turkey. Typical analyses of adsorbents were
radical at room temperature. The reaction produces free given in Table 2. Batch adsorption studies were per-
radicals such as HO− and HO2−, which almost nonselec- formed using crude OMWW in 250-mL Erlenmeyer
tively attack organic as well as inorganic pollutants at flasks with 100 mL of working volume for agitated
diffusion-controlled reaction rates (Justino et al. 2009). culture conditions at 250 rpm. The particle sizes of all
The elimination of phenolic compounds contained in
OMWW by ozonation or ozone/UV have increased effluent Table 1 Composition of OMWW during the experimental period
biodegradability (Amat et al. 2003; Lafi et al. 2009).
Parameter Mean value
Similarly, one of the advanced oxidation process, Fenton's
reagent, is often used as a pre- or post-treatment phase in Total COD (mg L-1) 59,149
combination with any microbial process for degrading re- Dissolved COD (in liquid phase) (mg L-1) 33,070
sidual volatile and nonvolatile organic compounds into CO2 COD (in precipitate) (mg L-1) 26,079
and biomass (Bressan et al. 2004). According to the studies BOD5 (mg L-1) 29,930
of Khoufi et al., an innovative process for the treatment of Total phenol (mg L-1) 3,659
olive mill wastewater has been recently upscaled from lab- Total solid content (mg L-1) 36,580
scale to pilot plant (Khoufi et al. 2006, 2009). This process Suspended solid content (mg L-1) 14,080
combines the electro-Fenton reaction followed by anaerobic NH4+ 3.45
digestion and ultrafiltration as a post-treatment to complete- NO3− 108
ly detoxify the anaerobic effluent and remove its high mo- Oil-gres 115
lecular mass polyphenols. Conductivity (mS/cm) 11.3
In this study, sequential treatment of OMWW, composed pH 4.85
of adsorption with various inexpensive mineral adsorbents,
Environ Sci Pollut Res

adsorbents were about 300 μm. The effect of initial pH Photo-Fenton oxidation of OMWW as post-treatment
(1.0–12.0) on adsorption of OMWW was examined for
150 min. The pH of the solution was adjusted using Photo-Fenton treatment was carried out after biological
concentrated H2SO4 and NaOH. The effect of different treatment was performed with T. versicolor of 50 %
montmorillonite amounts (1–150 g L−1) on adsorption OMWW samples. In this study, 200 mL of homogenous
was examined at pH 10.0. All the experiments were carried and representative OMWW sample was transferred into a
out in triplicate. At the end of the study, color, phenol removal, 500-mL glass beaker for continuous magnetic stirring
and COD were determined by a spectrophotometer (Shimadzu (100 rpm) at room temperature which was followed by
UV–Vis Spectrophotometer 2550). biological treatment. Then, 6 mL of FeSO4 5·H2O (0.5 M)
was progressively added into a beaker. After the OMWW
Biological treatment of OMWW with T. versicolor samples have been mixed for 10 min, the mixture pH was
adjusted to 4.0 (with H2SO4 or NaOH). Four milliliters of
The microorganisms used for biological treatment of H2O2 (30 %v/v) was added every 10 min within a period of
OMWW, nonadapted T. versicolor ATCC (200801) was 1 h. During this period, a UV lamp was switched on after the
provided from ATCC. Biological treatment was carried first H2O2 has been added and switched off after 2 h (Justino
out with 25–50 % concentrations and nondiluted et al. 2009). After 4 days of incubation period, spectropho-
OMWW samples pretreated by montmorillonite after tometric measurements of phenol removals were measured
pH value was reduced to 4.8, which is appropriate for for every day. At the end of the study, color, phenol removal,
biological process. After preculture incubation at 30 °C and COD were determined by a spectrophotometer.
on Malt broth (Merck) for 7 days, obtained fungal
pellets were weighed at equal amounts (25 gL−1) and Analytical methods
were used as inoculum. Pellets were transferred into
100 mL OMWW samples in a 250-mL flask for agitat- Total phenol was determined by Folin–Ciocalteau reagent
ed culture conditions (150 rpm). T. versicolor was in- with gallic acid as the standard (Slinkard and Singleton
cubated at 30 °C for 24 h and spectrophotometric 1977). Concentration of COD was determined according
measurements of phenol removals were measured. to APHA (1992). The net surface charge of the montmoril-
After determining dilution of OMWW, the effect of lonite at different pH values was determined from the zeta
biomass amount (5–100 gL−1) was examined for bio- potential measurements by a Malvern Zetasizer instrument.
logical treatment. To evaluate the effect of incubation
time (1–10 days), dephenolization with 10 g L−1 of Toxicity evaluation
biomass was studied. Spectrophotometric measurements
of color, phenol removals, and COD were measured in Acute toxicity was investigated by determining the luminescent
the tenth day of the incubation period. All experiments inhibition of the Vibrio fischeri NRRL number B-11177. In
were carried out in triplicate and noninoculated controls order to test toxicity, a vial of this commercial bacterium was
were incubated in parallel under the same conditions. purchased in freeze-dried form from Strategic Diagnostics, Inc.

Table 2 Typical analysis of

adsorbents Physical properties Pumice Perlite Clinoptilolite Montmorillonite Fly ash

Density (g/cm3) 1.88 2.34 1.425 2.537 1.99

Specific surface (cm2/g) 4.814 NA 1.783 NA 3.340
Void fraction (e) 3.48 NA NA 1.09 NA
Porozite (n %) 58 98 56 52.23 NA
Chemical properties (%)
SiO2 69 73.54 67.6 51.14 45.18
Al2O3 14.65 15.23 11.3 19.76 20.94
Fe2O3 2.51 1.02 0.77 0.83 7.99
CaO 1.11 0.41 3.26 1.62 1.22
MgO 0.55 0.43 1.18 3.22 2.79
K2O 3.52 4.73 2.17 0.04 2.24
Na2O 2.48 3.56 NA 0.11 0.57
SO3 0.4 0.12 NA NA 5.63
Combustion losses 4.96 0.78 13.59 22.8 NA
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

(SDI, Newark, DE, USA) and activated by reconstitution solu- Table 3 % phenol removal of OMWW with various adsorbents at
different pH
tion (Azur). The light emission of this bacterium in contact with
both untreated and treated samples and 5 and 15 min of pH values Pumice Perlite Clinoptiolite Montmorillonite Fly ash
exposure times was measured using the Microtox® 500 ana-
lyzer according to the Basic Test Protocol. The luminescence pH 1 3.97 19.54 2.40 29.03 3.36
was recorded at 490 nm. The data were processed using the pH 2 7.08 7.48 2.62 19.86 13.33
MicrotoxOmni Software. The concentration of the sample pro- pH 3 1.66 5.75 4.12 9.97 2.06
duced by a 50 % decrease in light after exposure for 15 min was Own pH 1.38 0.20 14.59 19.71 6.47
defined as the effective concentration (EC50). pH 7 2.60 9.16 22.28 24.71 11.85
pH 9 16.76 30.99 6.80 27.53 33.97
pH 10 25.51 38.32 19.35 40.20 26.20
Results and discussion pH 12 5.71 6.39 0.38 41.66 11.52

Establishing adsorption/desorption equilibrium needs spe-

cial care while organic matter and phenols start to desorb biological treatment of OMWW was conducted in batch sys-
after a certain contact time. Characteristics of OMWW were tem. After adsorption treatment, by reducing pH to 4.8, as
given in Table 1. A typical analysis of the adsorbents in this evaluated at our previous study (Aytar et al. 2011), a growing
study obtained from the Balikesir of Turkey is given in cell of T. versicolor ATCC200801 was added into nondiluted
Table 2. Table 3 indicates effects of OMWW pH variation and diluted (25 % and 50 %) OMWW's without any addition of
throughout adsorption with different adsorbents on phenol nutrients which caused important phenolics and COD removal
removal. Phenol removal in alkaline pH rather than acidic during incubation. The rates of 30.96 %, 24.28 %, and 18.41 %
conditions was exhibited to be both more efficient and stable of phenol removal were observed at the dilution rates of 25 %
in this study. Because of the fact that phenol is a weak acid and 50 %, and nondiluted OMWW, respectively. To observe
(pKa 010), OMWW will be adsorbed to a higher extent at efficiency of concentration as high as possible, 50 % dilution of
neutral to basic pH values due to the binding forces prevail- OMWW was chosen. In the case of the effect of biomass
ing between the phenol oxide and the positively charged amount on phenol removal of OMWW with growing cell
surface of modified bentonite (Al-Asheh et al. 2003). having T. versicolor, 10 g of biomass amount was chosen
Comparison of the phenol removal efficiency obtained at for further experiment related to tolerance to the initial
varying dosages of adsorbents such as montmorillonite, polyphenol concentration of T. versicolor growing cell.
clinoptiolite, an fly ash at optimal pH levels of 10, 7, and According to our results, 59.40 % of dephenolization
9, respectively, is represented in Table 4. In the case of using and 36 % of COD removal with 10 g of T. versicolor
adsorbents studied, the adsorbed amount of OMWW in- pellets at the end of 10 days of the incubation period
creased when the pH level was higher. However, changing were determined at 15 % OMWW in the absence of
the pH to acidic reduces the uptake of OMWW. The same external organic supplements without spending adapta-
trend was obtained in the literature (Al-Asheh et al. 2003; tion period (Table 5). OMWW pH variation occurred
Lizhong et al. 1996). It can be noted that increasing mont- throughout biological treatment and was changed from
morillonite amount from 0.1 up to 15 gL−1 caused phenol 4.8 to 7.3.
removal efficiency to rise correspondingly, reaching maxi-
mum values of 48.69 % at 15 gL−1. Based on the results
Table 4 Effects of adsorbent amount on OMWW adsorption with
obtained in all the adsorption experiments, montmorillonite selected adsorbents
with a dosage of 15 gL−1 at pH 10 was chosen as the first
treatment for the OMWW and used in further experiments. Adsorbent Montmorillonite Fly ash Clinoptiolite
amount (g) (pH 10) (pH 9) (pH 7)
According to zeta potential measurements, the surface charge
of the montmorillonite varied from −20.05 to −10.9 mV when 0.1 7.82 16.03 0.87
the pH was altered from 1.0 to 12.0. At pH 10.0, the selected 0.5 14.48 25.45 0.84
optimum value of adsorption, zeta potential was −11.9 mV 1.0 24.08 24.14 5.80
(Fig. 1). These results demonstrate the adsorption of the 2.0 33.77 21.40 6.59
studied OMWW onto the montmorillonite as a function of pH. 4.0 29.94 27.92 1.83
Biological processes for the treatment of wastewaters, which 6.0 38.81 32.29 11.51
can remove organic matter and inorganic nutrients, are consid- 8.0 37.74 36.91 13.36
ered ecofriendly, reliable, and, cost-effective. As an alternative 10.0 43.32 39.04 3.02
method, dilution is very often used prior to biological treatment 15.0 48.69 38.11 11.85
for reducing toxicity to the microorganisms. In this study,
Environ Sci Pollut Res

2001). Adsorption on granular activated carbon after coag-

ulation/flocculation/sedimentation gave about 30 % COD
reduction and a requirement of 50 kgcarbonm−3 effluent
(Kestioglu et al. 2005).
According to the study of Justino et al., the pretreatment of
samples by photo-Fenton oxidation has decreased the ability
of fungi to reduce OMWW sample toxicity probably due to
the presence of metabolites derived from the oxidation of the
organic compounds present in OMWW, despite those that are
bioaccumulated in fungal mycelia (Justino et. al. 2009).
While ozonation and aerobic treatment were combined,
Benitez et al. reported a total COD reduction of 82.5 %, a
Fig. 1 Zeta potential measurement of montmorillonite
percentage higher than either of the two technologies could
achieve alone, which indicated that ozonation increased the
A rate of 50 % diluted OMWW samples treated with T. biodegradability of the OMWW (Benitez et al. 1999). In
versicolor was submitted to photo-Fenton oxidation. Such another literature data, a similar trend was also observed.
advanced oxidation processes are very hopeful techniques Varying inlet ozone concentrations between 10 and 45 mgL−1
for the treatment of wastewaters having recalcitrant environ- and having ozonation times of up to 2.5 h, COD removals of
mental pollutants (Scott and Ollis 1995; Gogate and Pandit up to 70–80 % were observed as well as 40–50 % phenol
2004). Photo-Fenton process caused a very remarkable color reduction. After ozonation, active sludge treatment led to a
reduction in OMWW which was not achieved by biological further 60–80 % COD reduction (Rivas et al. 2000). Fenton's
treatment. Furthermore, COD was also altered from 31.1 gL−1 reagent can also increase the biodegradability of an OMWW.
to 3.1 gL−1 and changed the percentage of reduction in total Beltran-Heredia et al. carried out Fenton's oxidation coupled
phenolic content (85.8 % after 1 day and 95 % after 2 days) with an aerobic post-treatment and was able to reach up to 70 %
through photo-Fenton oxidation (Fig. 2). Similar results were of total COD reduction and over 90 % phenol reduction
also observed in the literature (Justino et al. 2009). (Beltran-Heredia et al. 2001). Similar results were observed in
The combination of four treatment steps composed of the study of Bressan et al. (2004).
settling, centrifugation, filtration, and activated carbon ad- In this study, as a summary, the efficiencies of three treat-
sorption provided 94 % phenol removal and 83 % organic ments, including adsorption, fungus treatment, and photo-
matter removal (Azzam et al. 2004). A study of the effect of Fenton oxidation, sequentially applied to OMWW were ana-
lime treatment on various OMWW after a classic coagula- lyzed especially for total phenolics and COD content. After
tion/flocculation/sedimentation/filtration process using a effective adsorption of OMWW with montmorillonite, bio-
range of lime doses from 10 to 40 gL−1 revealed that this logical process was also treated. Although the treatment with
application showed 62–73 % phenol removal (Aktas et al. the fungus of diluted OMWW samples allowed phenolics and

Table 5 Biological treatment experiments after adsorption

Phenol removal at different OMWW dilutions with biological treatment after adsorption (5 g of biomass amount, 150 rpm of agitation rate, 25±1 °C,
100 mL of total volume)

OMWW dilutions
25 % 50 % Nondiluted OMWW
% phenol removal 30.96 24.28 18.41
Phenol removal at different biomass amounts with biological treatment after adsorption (50 % OMWW, 150 rpm of agitation rate, 25±1 °C,
100 mL of total volume)
Biomass amount (g)
0.5 2 5 8 10
% phenol removal 22.70 23.25 26.08 28.50 31.03
Phenol removal at different contact time with biological treatment after adsorption (50 % OMWW, 150 rpm of agitation rate,10 g of biomass
amount, 25±1 °C, 100 mL of total volume)
Days
1st 3rd 5th 8th 10th
% phenol removal 30.76 35.69 52.08 58.56 59.40
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

Fig. 2 Evaluation of the quality of the OMWW after treatments: adsorption, biological, photo-Fenton, sequential treatment I (adsorption +
biological), and sequential treatment II (adsorption + biological + photo-Fenton)

COD reduction, this fungus species did not induce important of nontreated and treated OMWW samples. During toxicity
color reduction. Dark color of OMWW made disposal diffi- measurement, it was observed as an EC50 of 18.00 % for 1/
cult. However, after biological treatment, photo-Fenton oxi- 100 of dilution-treated OMWW. However, toxicity of
dation seemed to be an attractive solution, especially for color OMWW was found as an EC50 of 9.00 % for 1/1,000 of
reduction. The obtained results and color change were shown dilution-nontreated OMWW. These results indicated that
in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively. It is a sequential method that can toxicity of OMWW was reduced through all treatment pro-
compete with the literature findings above. Figure 3 illustrated cesses such as adsorption, biological application, and photo-
that contribution to sequential treatment of each treatment. Fenton oxidation. Similar values of OMWW toxicity were
Acute toxicities of diluted OMWW samples, before and reported by Justino et al. for D. manga species (Jaouani et
after all treatment compared to the parent compound, were al. 2005). As it was observed by Martirani et al., OMWW
assessed with V. fischeri. Toxicity of OMWW, after all treatment with P. ostreatus promoted effluent detoxification
treatment, was observed as EC50 of 9.00 %. Due to the fact to Bacillus cereus with concomitant phenol content decrease
that a nondiluted sample was sufficiently toxic to test bac- (Martirani et al. 1996). However, according to some authors,
terium, V. fischeri, it was not possible to evaluate the toxicity such biological processes alone were not effective enough for

Fig. 3 Color change at

OMWW after sequential
treatment
Environ Sci Pollut Res

detoxification of OMWW especially nonbiodegradable organ- Bettazzi E, Morelli M, Caffaz S, Caretti C, Azzari E, Lubello C (2006)
Olive mill wastewater treatment: an experimental study. Water Sci
ic compounds because these organic compounds apart from
Technol 54:17–25
the phenols, namely, medium or high molecular polymers, Bressan M, Liberatore L, D'Alessandro N, Tonucci L, Belli C, Ranalli
resulted from low molecular weight polymerization and phe- G (2004) Improved combined chemical and biological treatments
nolic autooxidation with recalcitrant and toxic nature and were of olive oil mill wastewaters. J Agric Food Chem 52:1288–1233
Canizares P, Lobato J, Paz R, Rodrigo MA, Sa’ez C (2007) Advanced
probably responsible for the remaining OMWW toxicity
oxidation processes for the treatment of olive oil mills wastewater.
(Lathasree et al. 2004). However, in this study, the detoxifi- Chemosphere 67:832–838
cation process could be evaluated as successful to satisfy three Carlos Ruiz J, Rubia T, Pe’rez J, Martı’nez-Lopez J (2002) Effect of
treatment procedures. olive mill wastewater on extracellular ligninolytic enzymes pro-
duced by Phanerochaete flavido-alba. FEMS Microb Lett
212:41–45
D'Annibale A, Crestini C, Vinciguerra V, Sermanni GG (1998) The
Conclusions biodegradation of recalcitrant effluents from an olive mill by a
white-rot fungus. J Biotechnol 61:209–218
De Marco E, Savarese M, Paduano A, Sacchi R (2007) Characteriza-
OMWWeffluent is one of the most persistent pollutants, mainly
tion and fractionation of phenolic compounds extracted from
in the Mediterranean countries. High phenolic content, dark olive oil mill wastewaters. Food Chem 104:858–867
color, and recalcitrant organic compounds were not overcome Dhouib A, Aloui F, Hamad N, Sayadi S (2006) Pilot-plant treatment of
by single chemical treatment or biological process. Therefore, olive mill wastewaters by Phanerochaete chrysosporium coupled to
anaerobic digestion and ultrafiltration. Process Biochem 41:159–167
as it was suggested by several authors, sequential treatment
Dias AA, Bezerra RM, Pereira AN (2004) Activity and elution profile
including adsorption, fungal treatment, and photo-Fenton pro- o laccase during biological decolorization and dephenolization of
cess was carried out in this study and outstanding results were olive mill wastewater. Bioresour Technol 92:7–13
observed. In this study, after especially photo-Fenton process, Ergül FE, Sargın S, Öngen G, Sukan FV (2009) Dephenolisation of
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co-culture applications. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 27:107–114
Eroglu E, Eroglu I, Gunduz U, Yucel M (2008) Effect of clay pretreat-
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