Modeling of ultrasonic phenols degradation of olive mills wastewater

Abstract
The sonochemical degradation of poly phenolic compounds in olive mill effluent wastewater
(OMW) to enhance biodegradation was investigated. Some important operational parameters
including: sonication time, power and frequency were tested to determine their net effect on
the degradation process. It was found that. The degradation rate of total phenol was found to
decrease with increasing sonication time. Biological oxygen demand (BOD and chemical
oxygen demand (COD) were measured for samples of the treated olive-mill wastewater.
Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD and chemical oxygen demand tests (COD ) tests on
olive-mill wastewater , showed that ultrasound pretreatment resulted in increase increase in
biodegradable organic solids for green and black OMW, respectively.. On the other hand,
sonication energy was found to have no significant effect on the COD of OMW samples. The
maximum increase of COD for the green and dark OMW samples, respectively. A good
representation of the experimental results of sonochemical degradation of total phenol was
obtained using the first order degradation kinetics model. The results confirm the
applicability of sonication energy as a treatment technology to reduce the content of toxic
phenolic compounds.