Sustainable Management of Waste in the Olive Oil Sector

Abstract

One of the challenges of olive oil production is the management of the large amounts of waste generated by the sector. Only 20% of the mass of the olive fruit ends up as olive oil. Most of the remaining biomass consists of the pulp and skin of the fruit, known as olive pomace. This olive pomace still contains oil, which is usually extracted with hexane and sold as lower-quality olive pomace oil. The biomass left over after extraction is called olive cake and is usually combusted to produce electricity or heat. Current waste management practices in the olive sector have a significant environmental impact and provide little economic benefit to olive oil producers. This work proposes a sustainable alternative to valorize olive cake, the main waste from the olive oil sector. The overall objective is to sustainably produce chemical compounds with market value, such as polyphenols, inositol, carbohydrates, bioethanol, tar and ash. The processes proposed also generate heat, that can be reused in the waste management alternative proposed. These processes can be integrated in a biorefinery that would be able to produce olive oil as the primary product, along with a wide range of other products with high market potential.