PHOTOMEM · Photocatalytic and membrane technology process for olive oil mill waste water treatment

Presently available methods for the treatment of olive mill waste water are not acceptable from the environmental point of view (evaporation, discharge) or not suitable from the economic aspect (membrane treatments) costing 10-20% of revenues from oil selling. PHOTOMEM proposes a reliable and affordable technology solution to treat the waste water, applying a novel technical solution based on degradation of organic pollutants through photocatalysis. Dispersed ferromagnetic titania nanoparticles with a magnetic core will be used in a photocatalytic reactor and recovered through a magnetic filter. A subsequent membrane filtration step will be used to achieve the COD limit for reuse of the recycled 85% of wastewater as purified water to a grade compatible with irrigation use and/or dischargeable at low cost in the civil municipal sewer system. The combination of the 2 processes will grant strongly improved performances: double membrane lifetime, 50% cost saving for the operation, 3 times more compact plant, much faster operation. The recovery of polyphenols, a family of added value compounds (hydroxytyrosol) present in the wastewater will be performed to make the process more profitable. The tangible outcomes of the PHOTOMEM project will be: 1. Production process for ferromagnetic photocatalytic titania nanoparticles, 2. Economical wastewater treatment for OMWW, 3. PHOTOMEM pilot plant of 1 m3/day capacity to validate the treatment and evaluate scale-up. The 2 SMEs (ECS, BIOAZUL) specialised in waste water treatment plants design and construction will sell the PHOTOMEM plant in 2 different countries (Italy, Spain). The producer of custom-made ceramic powders and nanostructured materials for industrial use (MT) will produce the ferromagnetic photocatalytic titania nanoparticles. The end-user (FRA) will apply the technology in its production site. The market potential for such a solution would be of the order of several tens of millions of Euro.