Mohammed O.J. Azzam

Olive mills effluent (OME) wastewater post-treatment using activated clay

Olive mill effluent (OME) wastewater embodies a challenge for environmental scientists and engineers. It is characterized by high values of COD, BOD, and phenolic content. A series of treatment steps composed of settling, centrifugation, and filtration was consecutively used to condition OME wastewater. The filtrate was then subjected to a post-treatment process, namely adsorption on activated clay. The dynamic response of phenols concentration, pH, and COD, using different concentrations of activated clay, showed a peak at which maximum adsorption capacity was achieved. The maximum adsorption capacity for the tested concentrations of activated clay was reached in less than 4 h. It is thought that adsorption of phenols and organics is reversible and mainly due to hydrophobic interactions. The maximum removal of phenols was about 81%, while it reached about 71% for organic matter.

Anodic destruction of 4-chlorophenol solution

The electrochemical oxidation of 4-chlorophenol solutions was studied using a dimensional stable anode (DSA), made of pure titanium sheet mesh coated with Ti/TiO(2) and RuO(2) film. An electrochemical cell with one working electrode and two counter-electrodes was designed. A gas collecting system to collect the electrolysis gaseous products was also designed. The influence of current density (6.51-21.58 mA/cm(2)), pH (2.0-12.6) and initial 4-chlorophenol concentration (25-100 mg/l) on the destruction was investigated. Complete elimination was successfully achieved within 2 h for most investigated conditions. Highest rates of elimination were achieved at a pH of 12.6.A new approach to calculate the current efficiency (CE) of the cell was proposed. The volumes of the gases produced at the anode and at the cathode were the basis for the new CE calculations. It was observed that the worst CE was approximately 20% and the best CE was approximately 89%. The most efficient pH was at 12.6 and the most efficient current density was at 11.39 mA/cm(2).

Dynamic Post-treatment Response of Olive Mill Effluent Wastewater Using Activated Carbon

Abstract Olive mill effluent (OME) wastewater represents a serious environmental problem in the Mediterranean area. It has extremely high values of COD, BOD, and phenolic content. A new approach of treatment steps composed of settling, centrifugation, and filtration is suggested to be used to condition OME wastewater. The filtrate is then subjected to a post-treatment process, namely adsorption on activated carbon. The dynamic response of phenols concentration, pH, and COD, using different concentrations of activated carbon, shows a peak at which maximum adsorption capacity is achieved. The maximum adsorption capacity for the tested concentrations of activated carbon is reached in less than 4 h. The maximum removal of phenols is about 94%, while it reaches about 83% for organic matter.

Emulsifying properties of BSA in different vegetable oil emulsions using conductivity technique

The stability of oil in water emulsions using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as an emulsifying agent was investigated using the conductivity technique. The effect of oil volume fraction (0.25‐0.56 v/v) and BSA concentration (0.05‐5.00 mg/ml) was studied using four vegetable oils, namely corn, olive, soybean and sunflower. In general, it was found that the effect of increasing BSA concentration from 0.05 to 5.0 mg/ ml on emulsion stability showed a systematic behavior characterized by a decrease followed by an increase and then by a decrease. Moreover, corn oil showed no emulsification at low BSA concentration, and/or higher oil volume fraction (w o). Unlike other oils, olive oil could be emulsified to higherw o. As far as w o is concerned, emulsion stability showed an increase with increasing w o. Finally, emulsifier activity showed a weak dependence on BSA concentration, while increasing w o positively affected the emulsifier activity. q 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of Counter Electrode Material on the Anodic destruction of 4-Cl Phenol Solution

The electrochemical oxidation of solutions of 4-Cl -phenol was studied using a dimensional stable anode (DSA). An electrochemical cell with one working electrode and two counter electrodes was used. Four counter electrodes—lead, zinc, brass and copper—were tested under different pH values—namely, 2.3, 7.0 and 12.6. Complete elimination was successfully achieved. The experimental results show a considerable influence of the counter electrode material on the rate of destruction. In addition, the pH affects the destruction rate versus the counter electrode material. At a pH of 12.6, the rate of destruction using copper was higher than when using lead, while at a pH of 2.3, this behaviour was reversed. Furthermore, at a pH of 7.0, all the tested counter electrode materials had almost the same performance.

Olive mills wastewater treatment using local natural Jordanian clay

AbstractIn the Mediterranean area, olives are harvested and sent to mills where olive oil is extracted. These mills produce two types of wastes, namely olive kernel and olive mills wastewater (OMW). This OMW is considered an environmental problem because of its high organic content (COD over 80–200 g/l), high phenolics content (more than 400 mg/l), and low acidic pH (3–6). This study is about investigating the feasibility of using simple naturally occurring local Jordanian clay as a possible adsorbent to decrease the levels of the above negative characteristics of raw OMW as a step in developing a methodology to solve OMW problem without creating new problems to freshwater supply resources. Natural clay was calcined at several temperatures (350–550°C), some of which were further subjected to acid treatment using 1, 3, and 5 M-HCl solutions at 85°C. These treated clays were contacted with OMW in batch experiments to decide on optimum conditions to be used for a continuous packed bed treatment system. COD a...

Jojoba Oil/Water Emulsions Stabilized by BSA and Egg Proteins: A Study Using Conductivity Technique

Stability of jojoba oil/water emulsion systems was investigated using the conductivity technique. Egg white, egg yolk, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) proteins were used as emulsifiers. Stability of above emulsions was investigated using several protein concentrations (0.05–0.50 mg/ml) and several oil volume fractions, OVF, (0.25; 0.50). It was concluded from the results that the investigated emulsions stability, when using BSA, was higher than when using egg white or egg yolk. In addition, emulsion stability did not show a strong dependence on OVF, except at the higher protein concentration of 5.0 mg/ml, where ES increased significantly with increasing OVF. Finally, emulsifier activity was found to increase with increasing OVF.

Carbomer Dispersions: A New Calibration Method for Quantifying Shear-Thinning and Shear-Thickening Effects

This article introduces a new method to quantify non-Newtonian behavior of polymer dispersions, while, at the same time, taking into consideration the instrumental accuracy for measuring rheological properties of such dispersions. As a case study, rheological properties of carbomer dispersions have been investigated as a function of carbomer concentration. Carbomer, 2-propenoic acid homo-polymer, is classified as a synthetic polymer and used as an emulsion stabilizer as well as an aqueous thickening agent. The apparent viscosity, η, was measured as a function of shear rate for different carbomer contents. The calibration method introduces a dimensionless viscosity change, , and a dimensionless change in shear rate, Φ. A straight-line relationship was used as a model to describe how changes as a function of Φ. The model, based on the proposed calibration method, managed to quantitatively and qualitatively describe the shear-thinning behavior of carbomer dispersions. Carbomer dispersions have values less than one for diluted concentrations (less than 0.45 wt% carbomer). Above this threshold, carbomer dispersions exhibited a non-Newtonian behavior manifested by values greater than one.