Continuous flow adsorption of phenolic compounds from olive mill wastewater with resin XAD16N: life cycle assessment, cost–benefit analysis and process optimization

Abstract

Olive mill wastewaters (OMWs) represent a major environmental concern due to their high organic loadand phytotoxic activity. The selective recovery of phenolic compounds (PCs) from OMW is promising, thanks to the antioxidantand antimicrobial properties of PCs. The goal of this work was to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) and cost–benefit analysis(CBA) of a full-scale process of PC adsorption/desorption on resin Amberlite XAD16N. The industrial process was designed on thebasis of laboratory tests aimed at performing a preliminary process optimization.