Evidence of inert fractions in olive mill wastewater by size and structural fractionation before and after thermal acid cracking treatment

Abstract

Abstract The main purpose of this study was to identify the inert fractions in olive mill wastewater (OMW) before and after chemical treatment by employing size distribution and structural resin fractionation procedures. Thermal acid cracking was selected as the chemical treatment process due to its superior performance in terms of organic matter removal from the OMW sample. Size fractionation of OMW before and after thermal acid cracking treatment was carried out using different molecular weight cut-off membranes ranging from >1600 nm to