Characterization of olive mill wastewater and gamma irradiation effects on some parameters of its composition

Gamma irradiation was applied to olive mill wastewater and synthetic samples prepared from Gallic acid. The effects, generated on the physicochemical characteristics and on the composition of this effluent, were studied. Results obtained revealed that the degradation of phenolic compounds under gamma irradiation is slow. HPLC analysis confirmed the appearance of other phenolitic compound. The removal rate is significant (> 90%) in the diluted effluent (0.079 g L −1 ) but does not exceed 8.16% in the concentrated effluent (3.95 g L −1 ) even with an irradiation dose of 80 kGy. Gamma irradiation made it possible to transform the organic matter which is difficult to biodegrade in the initial effluent to an easily biodegradable feedstock after treatment and also significantly affected the composition of the effluent.