Almost half the volume of these wastewaters is produced at the beginning of each season (within a month) during the debittering of fresh olives with NaOH. The volume reduction of these effluents from debittering of table olives is investigated by employing Nanofiltration (NF) membranes, while concentration of polyphenols is achieved in the membrane retentate stream. The membrane permeate and retentate streams are adequately characterized for designing both the polyphenol recovery operation as well as the subsequent biological treatment for clean water recovery.

table-olive processing wastewater, polyphenols recovery, high added value products, water management, environmental protection