Phenolic profiles of olive mill wastewaters treated by membrane filtration systems

BACKGROUND Olive mill wastewater is an important by-product obtained after olive oil extraction. In this investigation, the phenolic composition of olive mill wastewater treated with a semi-industrial membrane filtration system, including ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis modules, was studied. In particular, untreated olive mill wastewater was compared with the permeate and the concentrate fractions of each filtration step. RESULTS 3,4-(dihydroxyphenyl) ethanol and p-(hydroxyphenyl) ethanol were the main compounds of all olive mill wastewater analyzed. A total of 32 compounds, detected at 240 or 280 nm by HPLC-DAD, were considered for phenol quantification. Ultrafiltration reduced phenol …