In this study, the applicability of physico-chemical methods was investigated for the pre-treatment of the olive mill effluents prior to the discharge into the common sewerage ending with a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The samples were taken from an olive oil industry operated as three-phase process located in Turkey. Various pre-treatment methods including acid craking, polyelectrolyte and lime additions were applied. Advanced oxidation study using Fenton's process was also investigated following pre-treatment by acid cracking and cationic polyelectrolyte. Acid cracking alone gave satisfactory treatment efficiencies and polyelectrolite additions to the acid-cracked samples enhanced treatment efficiency. Since a complete treatment plant is available at the end of the sewer system, results indicated that the effluents of the investigated industry could be discharged into the municipal sewerage in the case of total chemical oxygen demand (COD_tot), suspended solid (SS) and volatile suspended solid (VSS) concentrations according to the Turkish Water Pollution Control Regulation after pre-treatment with 5 ppm anionic polyelectrolyte following acid cracking. The minimum COD_tot, SS and VSS removals were observed when raw wastewater was pre-treated with lime and the discharge standards to the municipal sewer system could not be met. Advanced oxidation with Fenton's process was applied after acid cracking and cationic polyelectrolyte treatment in order to investigate further reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration for minimizing the influence of this industrial discharge on the existing municipal wastewater treatment plant. Results indicated that COD_tot removal increased up to 89% from 74% after Fenton's oxidation for the acid cracked samples in which cationic polyelectrolite (10 ppm) was added.

The effectiveness of green tea (Camellia sinensis) and pomegranate (Punica granatum) extracts for the production of iron nanoparticles and their application for color removal from a textile industry wastewater was investigated. Polyphenols in extracts act as reducing agents for iron ions in aqueous solutions, forming iron nanoparticles. Pomegranate extract was found to have almost a 10-fold higher polyphenolic content than the same amount of green tea extract on a mass basis. However, the size of the synthesized nanoparticles did not show a correlation with the polyphenolic content. 100 ppm and 300 ppm of iron nanoparticles were evaluated in terms of color removal efficiency from a real textile wastewater sample. 300 ppm of pomegranate nanoscale zero-valent iron particles showed more than 95% color removal and almost 80% dissolved organic carbon removal. The degradation mechanisms are is considered to be adsorption and precipitation to a major extent, and mineralization to a minor extent.

In this study, the potential of UV/TiO2 photocatalytic oxidation method to control of membrane fouling caused by natural organic matter (NOM) was investigated under various conditions in submerged MF membrane system. Effect of TiO2 concentration, UV irradiation in the absence of TiO2, TiO2 in the absence of UV irradiation and combination of UV/TiO2 photocatalytic oxidation were investigated. Additionally, intermittent and continuous UV application and initial NOM concentration on the pressure increase and rejections were also studied. The results of synthetic and raw water experiments were compared. It was found that TiO2 concentration is very important parameter by means of permeate pressure increase and removal effi ciencies. UV irradiation in the absence of TiO2 or TiO2 in the absence of UV irradiation was not effective and combination of UV/TiO2 photocatalytic oxidation gave better results. Also, intermittent UV application was not as effective as UV/TiO2. The increase in NOM concentration also increa...