3.1. Kinetic Study
Figure 4 shows the evolution of the drying in time of the OMWW, IS, and IWC in terms of moisture content X versus time.
One can see that for the three samples, the moisture ratio decreased continuously with the drying time, with different constant rate drying period. This is in accordance with other works dealing with the drying of OMWW [
23] and of other biomasses impregnated with OWWW [
19,
23].
During the first phase of drying, the slope of the moisture curve was very dependent on the sample used. Indeed, the highest one was observed for the IWC, followed by IS, and OMWW. As this stage corresponded to the departure of free or/and weakly bound water, one can attribute the difference to the mixture density and its porosity. Indeed, there were more voids within the impregnated wood chips (IWC), which led to a better air infiltration, whereas the impregnated sawdust (IS) was more compact and formed a paste-like mixture. As for the OMWW, the oily layer transformed into a crust at the top of the liquid, which may explain the slow evaporation rate and why the first stage ended earlier (16 h) compared to IWC (19.5 h) and IS (33.8 h).
In the second drying stage (drying stage separation shown by a dotted line in
Figure 3), this tendency was inversed and the slopes were in the following order: OMWW > IS > IWC. The acceleration in OMWW drying, during the second phase, could be the result of the cracking of the crust layer (white patch shown in
Figure 5, circled in red), due to the evaporated water under the crust forcing a way out on one hand and to the mechanical action of the convective air on the other hand. The resulting fissures then allow water to escape, and therefore the drying rate is increased.
The reason the IS drying rate was higher than that of IWC during the second stage may be related to the impregnation procedure and the material nature. Indeed, as sawdust is a finer and thinner material than the wood chips, its mixture with the oily liquid might have promoted the formation of stronger chemical bonds between the solid matrix and the liquid phase. The phenomenon of water and oil retention on the biomass fibers is probably the reason their slopes were inferior.
For the two impregnated solids, the water loss rate was less in the second stage, compared to the first one. Following the decrease in the concentration gradient between the samples and the surrounding air, mass flow was limited within the solid samples. This is due to bound water, which is more difficult to remove. In fact, the drying process is limited by a diffusion phase within the solid matrix. The vaporization front gradually moves towards the interior of the material. As water vapor has a longer way to cross, the surface pressure decreases. The difference between the latter and the vapor pressure of the surrounding air also decrease, slowing down the exchange and consequently the rate of drying [
24].
Finally, it is important to point out that the drying of the impregnated biomasses was faster than that of the OMWW sample (× 2 for IS and × 3.5 for IWC) during only the first stage of drying. Such a conclusion was reached for impregnated olive cake and impregnated sawdust (two times faster than OMWW for both materials) but for the whole operation of drying [
19]. This may be linked to the fact that in the mentioned paper, the layer to dry was thin (3 mm) whereas it was 3 cm in the present study. During the second stage, the drying was lower (× 1/2 for IS and × 1/3.5 for IWC) compared to OMWW, which explains why the amount of water evaporated per hour was substantially the same for all the samples.
3.3. Recovered Water Characterization
Figure 8 shows the aspect of recuperated condensed water (right) and of the raw OMWW (left). Despite the clearness of the obtained waters, their characterization is essential to ensure their compliance with water irrigation standards.
As mentioned in
Section 2.4, several parameters were measured for this purpose.
Table 2 gives these main physico-chemical properties of the raw OMWW and the recovered water from the drying operation of OMWW, IS, IWC, HS, and HWC, in comparison with the Tunisian standard for both discharging in water bodies and reuse in agriculture (norms NT 4106.002, NT 106.003 and decree-law N°89-1047 of 28 July 1989).
According to
Table 2, all the raw OMWW physico-chemical characteristics were much higher than the discharging and reuse requirements. For instance, the OMMW’ COD contents and phosphorus concentrations were about 769- and 416-fold higher than the related fixed maximum concentrations, respectively.
At the same time, the drying operation significantly decreased the pH of the recovered water solution compared to the raw OMWW (4.77). Indeed, the pH values of the recovered solutions varied between 3.9 for IS and 3.5 for OMWW. These values are again very low compared to the fixed norms of discharging and reuse (
Table 2). However, their adjustment to these norms could be easily performed by filtrating these recovered solutions through low-cost alkaline wastes such as seashell [
25] or powdered marble [
26]. Furthermore, the drying procedure also significantly decreased the electrical conductivity of the raw OMWW from 9.73 mS cm
−1 to about 0.25 mS cm
−1 for the recovered waters. This result was expected since waters that were evaporated during convective drying (low-temperature drying) contain very little inorganic ionic compounds. All these values were significantly lower than the fixed norm for wastewater discharging in water bodies or reuse in agriculture. The blank tests (HS and HWC) showed a low impact of the sawdust and the wood chips since the related recovered waters had very low EC and COD compared to the same solid matrixes when impregnated with OMWW.
Concerning the COD contents, all the recovered water solutions had low values compared to the raw OMWW (100 g L−1). The lowest value (2.1 g L−1) was registered for impregnated sawdust (IS). The highest one (8.4 g L−1) was observed for IWC and could be imputed to the release of supplementary organic matter from the solid matrix into the impregnating liquid phase. Electrical conductivity, pH, and COD tests were duplicated with recovered waters from different drying experiments. While pH and EC were close to each other, COD measurements were sensibly different (for example 2.3 and 14.4 g L−1 for OMWW). This difference is attributed to the time spent in open air. Indeed, the more the air was evacuated, the more the COD was decreased (2.3 g L−1 with 12 h venting and 14.4 g L−1 with no aeration). All the measured COD contents of the recovered waters were higher than the set standards. These values could be significantly decreased through specific treatment (depending on the detailed characterization of the contained dissolved organic matter) and mixing with other waters.
On the other hand, the IC analyses showed that for all the samples, the main anions and cations contents were significantly lower than the fixed norms (
Table 2). Moreover, the suggested treatment cited above for the increase of these recovered waters pH by using low-cost alkaline materials such as powdered marble or seashell, will certainly enrich them with mineral elements such as calcium and magnesium.
Moreover, GC-MS investigations showed that the organic chemicals found came from olive oil, residues, and wood. Indeed, classical fatty acids coming from olive oil such as myristic, palmitic, and stearic acids, as well as tyrosol and vanillin were transferred into the recovered waters. Waters from OMWW and impregnated biomasses also contained short-chain acids such as acetic, malonic, butanoic, fumaric, and succinic, which could explain the difference of COD after sample venting.
Wood chips and sawdust significantly released chemicals like glycerol, beta-alanine, D-glucose, urea, and some short-chain organic acids (D-glyceric, succinic, acetic, etc.,) into waters. These chemicals come from both impregnated biomasses and humidified ones.
Therefore, a tertiary treatment is necessary to adjust the pH and decrease the COD in order to use these waters in agriculture. A low-cost solution could be the filtration through low-cost materials such as the cited-above raw/modified mineral wastes (seashell or powdered marble) and a proper ventilation to extract organic volatile compounds.