**Author details**

not possible because the bacterial cells could not be retained in the system. The COD remov‐

**Parameter Influent Effluent Bureau of Indian Standards**

pH 7.0 - 7.3 7.5 - 7.7 5.5 - 9.0

Thiocyanate 51.67 ± 2.1 0.03± 0.01 NA

COD 596 ± 103 147 ± 41 250

All the figures in the table are expressed in mg/l, except pH; \*HRT of the system was ~20 h. Figures represent average values of 30 readings taken each at 24 h interval

with the minimum hydraulic retention time (HRT) of approximately 20 h. However, there was no reduction in the HRT of CTS further. The main reason for this was the continuous loss of active biomass from the reactor, which makes it unattractive from process economics point of view. This necessitates the immobilization of the bacterial consortium in the reactor. In principle, it is possible to retain active biomass in CTS if the culture used has an inherent property of producing wall growth. Further, biomass retention is also possible by changing the reactor design, introducing inert support material or changing nutrient supplementa‐ tion, etc. However, the consortium culture used in the present studies did not show wall growth. Also, in our studies during optimization of process parameters it was conclusively proved that degradation efficiency increased with the increase in cell number, which in turn

mediation process developed during the course of present work is highly efficient and com‐ pletely safe. After further scale-up the bacterial process developed could have the following advantages: (i) no sludge generation; (ii) no expensive chemical additives required; (iii) very little or no pH adjustment required; (iv) the process would be easy to operate and maintain. Thus, the bacterial process developed could have the potential of becoming an economical and reliable alternative to the conventional processes employed for the treatment of SCN-

The author gratefully acknowledges the research grant provided by University Grants Com‐

**(BIS)**

was degraded efficiently by the bacterial consortium

. Thus, the above results emphasize the fact that the biore‐

al efficiency after treatment was >75% for thiocyanate effluent (Table 6).

**Table 6.** Treatment of metal-cyanide waste waters in CTS

The results of CTS showed that SCN-

46 Applied Bioremediation - Active and Passive Approaches

hastens the degradation of SCN-

**Acknowledgements**

mission (UGC), WRO, Pune.

bearing industrial effluents on a commercial scale.

Yogesh B. Patil

Address all correspondence to: head\_respub@siu.edu.in

Symbiosis Institute of Research and Innovation (SIRI), Symbiosis International University (SIU), Lavale, Pune, Maharashtra, India

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**Chapter 3**

**Bioremediation of Olive Mill**

Antonio Bevilacqua, Leonardo Petruzzi, Maria Rosaria Corbo and Milena Sinigaglia

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/56916

and inflammatory responses [4].

**1. Introduction**

**for the Selection of Promising Strains**

**Wastewater by Yeasts – A Review of the Criteria**

The cultivation of olive trees and the production and use of olive oil has been a well-known

Olive is the most extensively cultivated fruit crop in the world, counting 9,2 million hectares

Over the last decade, olive oil production has increased about 40% worldwide and Europe obtained an increase of 45% in production [3], due to its high dietetic and nutritional value (the high smoke point-210 °C- and an excellent lipid profile as the proportion of saturated, mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fatty acids is 14:77:9) [1]. It is generally accepted that olive oil consumption brings benefits to human health, such as reduction of risk factors of coronary heart disease, prevention of several types of cancers, and modifications of immune

Mediterranean Countries produce more than 98% of the world's olive oil, which is estimated at over 2.5 million metric tons *per* year. Three quarters of the annual production in the world comes from European Union, in particular Spain (36% of the worldwide production), Italy

These data reflect the importance of olive oil sector in the Mediterranean area and consequently the magnitude of the problems related with the disposal of large amounts of olive mill wastewaters (OMW). Many studies report that OMW is a major pollutant to surface and

> © 2013 Bevilacqua et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

(24% of the world's total), and Greece (17% of the global production) [3].

and established practice in the Mediterranean region for more than 7000 years [1].

of area harvested in 2009 and its cultivation area has tripled in the past 50 years [2].

