Background ¿ BACKGROUND A pilot plant will be designed and constructed in Eastern Crete with the purpose of fully treating the effluent, also known as 'blackwater' from olive oil-milling plants. The effluent from the adjacent oil -mill will be channeled to the treatment plant. At the plant, the effluent will be processed through the Fenton method in combination with a dissolved air flotation device to extract the solid contents form the effluent. The subsequent solid component in the form of non-toxic sludge cake will be further processed through a closed in vessel sin-composting reactor in conjunction with locally available agricultural waste. From this process, stabilized compost free of pathogens will be obtained and allowed to mature into a high quality organic fertilizer available for distribution. It is anticipated that this fertilizer will meet ?U 2092/91 standards for organic agriculture. ¿ PROJECT OBJECTIVES The overall objective of the project is to provide with a viable solution to the oil-mill waste problem that can be implemented on a wide scale. In order to achieve this, the treatment unit must be able to process the waste to the highest possible degree, so that all by -products, including water may be re-used, to increase in practice the method's cost effectiveness yield and allow the oil -mills to operate in substantially the same way they have been designed and equipped for. The specific objective is, that the final post -processing output shall meet, or even exceed, all standards and regulations in power to-date in Greece and be flexible enough to comply with stringer or different standards in the future, by minor in situ modifications to the plants. A further objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of deriving additional environmental and economic benefits from the exploitation of by-products extracted from the proposed treatment methods, so as to open up the possibility of additional economic enhancement of future treatment plants. Objectives