Metal Organic Materials (MOM) Spheres for Dephenolization in Nanofiltration of Olive Wastewater

A Metal-Organic Materials (MOM) water filter blended in aluminum oxide was fabricated from secondary resource orange-peel powder and aluminum salt. This nanocomposite (MOM) was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). MOM was used to elaborate alginate aluminum orange-peel beads (Alg/MON). A fixed-bed reactor of these spheres was manufactured and used for dephenolization in nanofiltration fraction of olive wastewater and recovering compounds of the interests for the future perspectives of manufacturing new products in cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industries. It have demonstrated in this study that during the intermediate stage of operation in a column fixed-bed in bi-components system at a constant flow rate, the adsorbed compounds of interest were replaced by the influent phenol molecules due to the weaker affinity of compounds of interest for Alg/MOM. It resulted in outlet stream concentration of compounds of interest i.e, hydroxytyrosol/polyphenols effluent higher than its feed. Phenol exhibited a sequence: single < binary < multiple components system while hydroxytyrosol/polyphenols showed the sequence: single > binary > multiple components system. Alg/MOM allowed the separation of olive mill wastewater (OMWW) before phenol hydraulic retention time (HRT) as a supplementary of water resource. The recovering hydroxytyrosol/polyphenols from its HRT is up to 90% in its solution at purity can be operated for the effluent above 90% in bed volume (BV). Alg/MOM column was saturated above 90% with the feed and needed regeneration to restore its adsorptive capacity using 50% EtOH. The data were modeled with the good correlation from Thomas, Yoon-Nelson, and Adams-Bohart models, reflecting the dephenolization in nanofiltration and the regeneration of Alg/MOM spheres at desorption cycles except in the intermediate zone with superior hydroxytyrosol/polyphenols concentration in feed. The Metal-Organic Materials (MOM) spheres are suitable in agrofood wastewaters processing.

Keywords: Metal-Organic Materials (MOM); Dephenolization, Hydroxytyrosol/polyphenols; Recovery; Hydraulic retention time (HRT); Modelling; Agrofood wastewaters.