E Jalilnejad - Food Engineering and Biotechnology Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran
A Mogharei - Food Engineering and Biotechnology Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran
F Vahabzadeh - Food Engineering and Biotechnology Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran

Importance of using adapted culture versus non-adapted to treat highly toxic wastewaters such as olive mill wastewater (OMW) has been recognized in this work. The experimental data for non-adapted cultures showed that reductions of total phenolics were 5, 14 and 21 (%) for undiluted, 2-fold diluted and 4-fold diluted OMW samples, respectively. Parallel to non-adapted cultures, results obtained for adapted cultures confirmed better capability of these cultures for the removal of total phenloics; the reductions were 54, 42 and 33 for undiluted, 2-fold diluted and 4-fold diluted OMW samples. Thus percent of total phenolics removal for undiluted sample using adapted Ralstonia eutropha versus non-adapted cultures was 49% higher. The results are indicative of potentiality of the adapted culture to be used for highly polluted effluents.

Biotreatment, Phenolics, Olive Oil Mill Wastewater, Ralstonia Eutropha