Alperujo is a Promising New Source of Olive-Pomace Oil

With the recent revival of interest in the use of plant-derived waste oils as renewable replacements for fossil diesel fuel, researchers from the Department of Food Phytochemistry and the University of Sevilla in Spain are now searching for new processing byproducts with the potential to be a source for oils for biofuel production. Olive-pomace oil (OPO), a suitable oil for biofuel production, can be extracted from a by-product of processed olives for oil extraction, alperujo.

A steam treatment of alperujo is being used in the OPO extraction industry. The steam treatment improves centrifugation and facilitates drying for further OPO extraction. Crude OPO from steam-treated alperujo was proven to be good source for producing biodiesel. Oil characteristics and yield were evaluated and compared with the results of the untreated samples. These were then compared to other oils commonly used in biodiesel production. 

Result revealed that there were no yield differences observed between oils from alperujo and oils commonly used for biofuel production.