Experimental design optimization of reverse osmosis purification of pretreatedolive mill wastewater

- Reverse osmosis membrane (RO) process was optimized and modelled.
- Operating pressure (PTM), crossflow (vt) and temperature (T) influence.
- PTM and T exhibit a deeper influence on the permeate flux than vt.
- Optimum range 24-29.6 °C, 31.5-35 bar pressure and 4.1-5.1 m s-1 turbulent flow.
- Standards to reuse the purified effluent for irrigation or sewers discharge ensured.

The management of the effluents generated by olive oil industries, commonly known as olive mills, represents an ever increasing problem still unresolved. The core of the present work was the modelling and optimization of a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane operation for the purification of a tertiary-treated olive mill wastewater stream (OMW2TT). Statistical multifactorial analysis showed all the studied variables including the operating pressure (PTM), crossflow velocity (vt) and operating temperature (T) remarkably influence the permeate flux yielded by the selected membrane (p-value practically equal to zero), confirming a statistically significant relationship among the variables considered at 95% confidence level. However, PTM and T exhibit a deeper influence than vt, according to the p-values withdrawn from the analysis, being the squared effects significant too, but more in case of the former ones. The obtained contour plots and response surface support the former results. In particular, the optimized parameters were ambient temperature range (24-29.6 °C), moderate operating pressure (31.5-35 bar) and turbulent crossflow (4.1-5.1 m s− 1). In the end, the quality standards to reuse the purified effluent for irrigation purposes and discharge to sewers were stably ensured.

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