TITLE:
Olive Mill Waste Water Management Study by Using Principal Component Analysis
AUTHORS:
Houda Sahnoun, Mohamed Moncef Serbaji, Boubaker Karray, Khaled Medhioub
KEYWORDS:
Olive Mill Waste Water; Management; Sfax; Principal Component Analysis; Hierarchical Classification
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Geosciences,
Vol.4 No.2,
March
29,
2013
ABSTRACT: Olive mill waste water (OMWW) is a by-product issued after triturating olives. In Sfax, its management is different from urban to farming area. In this paper we treat it through a statistical analysis study during the season 2005-2006. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Classification (HC) methods are carried out on this work. Applied to variables issued from an exhaustive questionnaire including 274 mills, four Principal Components (PCs) are found to be significant, explaining 67% of the total variance. The coordinates of the 13 active variables retained by PCA were used to create a typology relative to the OMWW management and offered 7 groups of individuals which have the same characteristics, explaining 70% of the total inter-variance. This study showed that OMWW management in farming area could causes environmental problems because oleifactors haven’t controlled tanks and could evacuated OMWW on soil (causing oil deposit, waterproofing and possible asphyxia) or on public sewage network (causing corrosion, flow reduction). So, mills transfer from urban to farming areas in the form of agro-industrial complex is needed in the Sfax region.