橄榄油生产是欧洲最发达的部门之一,生产橄榄油和不受欢迎的副产品,如橄榄厂废水(OMWW)和有机废物。OMWW,含有大量化合物(主要是多酚,酚类物质,和单宁),代表一个问题。事实上,多酚具有双重性质:i)抗氧化剂有益特性,在许多工业领域有用,ii)生物抗性特性使它们在高浓度时有害。如果治疗不当,多酚可以危害生物多样性,破坏生态平衡,降低水质,对环境和人类健康都有风险。从循环经济的角度来看,捕获大量的多酚以重复使用并从水中去除其残留物是一个公开的挑战。本研究提出,第一次,一条超越最先进水平的新道路,通过新颖的吸附和降解技术相结合,环保且易于回收的铋基材料可捕获大量的两种模型多酚(没食子酸和3,4,5-三甲氧基苯甲酸),用传统工艺很难去除,并在太阳光下对它们进行光降解。耦合过程产生了98%的多酚,并快速有效地从水中光降解剩余部分。
Olive oil production is one of the most developed Europe\'s sectors, producing olive oil and undesirable by-products, such as olive mill wastewater (OMWW) and organic waste. OMWW, containing large amounts of compounds (mainly polyphenols, phenols, and tannins), represents a problem. In fact, polyphenols have dual nature: i) antioxidant beneficial properties, useful in many industrial fields, ii) biorefractory character making them harmful in high concentrations. If not properly treated, polyphenols can harm biodiversity, disrupt ecological balance, and degrade water quality, posing risks to both environment and human health. From a circular economy viewpoint, capturing large quantities of polyphenols to reuse and removing their residuals from water is an open challenge. This study proposes, for the first time, a new path beyond the state-of-the-art, combining adsorption and degradation technologies by novel, eco-friendly and easily recoverable bismuth-based materials to capture large amounts of two model polyphenols (gallic acid and 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoic acid), which are difficult to remove by traditional processes, and photodegrade them under solar light. The coupled process gave rise to collect 98% polyphenols, and to rapidly and effectively photodegrade the remaining portion from water.