Pollution estimation from olive mills wastewater in Jordan

Olive mill wastewaters (OMWWs) are a significant source of environmental pollution, especially in important olive oil producing countries such as Spain, Greece, Syria, Jordan and other countries in the Mediterranean. Due to cost issue no treatments plants are currently available at the mills; therefore, OMWW is normally discharged into the environment causing serious environmental problems such as: coloring and pollution of surface and ground waters, soil surface, and foul odors problems. Approximately 209,000 tons of olives have been processed in Jordan in 2017, which generated 175,000 m³ of OMWWs. They generated rougly 3,069 tons of BOD₅, 7,956 tons of COD, 149 tons of residual olive oil, 2.07 tons of phenols, 3,753 ton total suspended solids and 4.2 ton of phosphorous. The OMWW is rich in organic matter expressed as BOD₅ and COD with COD/BOD₅ of 2.6 indicated that OMWWs is not suitable for biological treatment and therefore must be treated before discharge to the environment or sewer system. Cleaner production options and proper environmental waste management systems at the mills are needed to reduce their environmental impact. This may include the adoption of the two-phase mills to reduce water use to less than half the quantities used in traditional and three phases mills.