Date of Award:

5-2015

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Biological Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Foster A. Agblevor

Committee

Foster A. Agblevor

Committee

Ronald Sims

Committee

Isaa Hamud

Abstract

From 2008 to 2013, an average of 2,821.4 kilotons/year of olive oil were produced around the world. The waste product of the olive mill industry consists of solid residue (pomace) and wastewater (OMW). Annually, around 30 million m3 of OMW are produced in the Mediterranean area, 700,000 m3 year−1 in Tunisia alone. OMW is an aqueous effluent characterized by an offensive smell and high organic matter content, including high molecular weight phenolic compounds and long-chain fatty acids. These compounds are highly toxic to micro-organisms and plants, which makes the OMW a serious threat to the environment if not managed properly. The OMW is disposed of in open air evaporation ponds. After evaporation of most of the water, OMWS is left in the bottom of the ponds. In this thesis, the effort has been made to evaluate the catalytic pyrolysis process as a technology to valorize the OMWS. The first section of this research showed that 41.12 wt. % of the OMWS is mostly lipids, which are a good source of energy. The second section proved that catalytic pyrolysis of the OMWS over red mud and HZSM-5 can produce green diesel, and 450 °C is the optimal reaction temperature to maximize the organic yields. The last section revealed that the HSF was behind the good fuel-like properties of the OMWS catalytic oils, whereas the SR hindered the bio-oil yields and quality.

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