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<pre>Greetings ...

I've included the text below from two Australian Olive Grower articles
(April 2000 issue) on the various uses for olive waste products. The first
article "EL TEJAR ATTACKS WASTE PROBLEMS" deals mainly with olive waste cake
and is very encouraging. The second article "WASTE IN OUR OLIVE INDUSTRY"
takes a general look at the various olive wastes produced by the olive
industry in Australia and how they can be used. Sorry that I couldn't
include the colour photos that ran with the article and explained some of
the points.

There are also many olive oil processing textbooks which have chapters
dealing specifically with the waste products issue. The Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome also put out a text in 1985 titled
"Olive by-products for Animal Feed" but I believe that it is out of print.
It outlines the various nutritional components of olive waste cake and
reports on some experiments they conducted.

Kind regards,
Julian Archer
Olives Australia




EL TEJAR ATTACKS WASTE PROBLEMS
A leading company in the Spanish industry has developed a new range of
profitable uses for the by-products of olive oil production. Their
discoveries are turning former wastes into present profits.

The olive industry of Andalucia in southern Spain is capable of producing an
average of 4 million metric tonnes of olives per year, of which 3.2 million
tonnes end up as the by-products known as waste cake and waste water. New
oil extraction technology has drastically reduced the quantities of waste
water and combined it with the unused olive flesh to produce a more
environmentally friendly product. It was precisely in order to exploit these
by-products that the company Oleicola El Tejar was born three decades ago.

Formed by the union of five co-operatives and a few private individuals, the
history of the past 30 years of constant growth is closely linked to the
history of the olive growing sector in all its facets. During this time the
whole olive growing sector has been a champion of spectacular technological
development.

With reference to production, the new cultivation techniques with intensive
plantations prepared for mechanical picking are becoming more and more usual
and thereby set the standard for the future. With regard to the olive
presses, these have changed in just over a decade from the hydraulic press
to continuous centrifigulisation.

Oleicola El Tejar, the largest of all companies in the olive waste
management sector, has been the advocate of the successive changes and has
been a point of reference for the rest of the olive waste management
industry. One objective has always guided their activity - to achieve the
greatest exploitation possible of the by-products generated by their olive
growing and processing partners.

El Tejar have focussed themselves on the application of new technology.
Today they can feel satisfied about solving the age old problem of residue
accumulation and for obtaining the maximum yield to date, of what were,
waste products.

Various milestones mark the history of Oleicola El Tejar and can perfectly
sum up the answers the company continuously found for the challenges posed
by the constant growth in the volume of olive production. In the beginning
their activity was limited to the extraction of oil from the olive paste by
conventional methods of discontinuous (traditional) extraction.

In 1985 the company took an important step forward by installing the first
continuous extraction press in the sector. By doing this, not only was it
possible to increase the capacity for treating the growing volume of wastes
but it was also possible to start a new activity, the extraction of
sunflower oil from the sunflowers produced by their partners. This also
enabled them to optimise the use of their installations by prolonging the
duration of the seasons. Their positive experience encouraged the starting
of new investments such as a plant for drying and handling olive waste cake
which was installed at Kanyeta in the province of Cordoba in 1987.

A constant factor in the history of Oleicola El Tejar has been its centre
for research and development which has constantly searched for new products
and markets for olive by-products.

Numerous projects in research and development have been undertaken in
conjunction with universities, research centres and companies. The fruits of
this research are the various production lines which are currently working
in the different centres within the El Tejar Co-operative. Olive pulp waste
is used in the manufacturing of animal feed with a good value for money
ratio. It is also used in the manufacturing of high quality organic
fertilisers suitable for ecological agriculture. It is sold under the name
Precobiol and is distributed by the German company Basf under the name
Basfhumus.

The olive stones have many uses. They are a component in the manufacture of
heat resistant bricks, bakelite, plastic containers, etc. They are also used
in a material for cleaning facades, and naturally, as a fuel for burning.

The crushed seeds are also transformed into activated carbon and used in the
purification of liquids and gases, a market with a growing demand. Once the
economic and technical viability of activated carbon had been proven in a
pilot plant, a second company, whose major share holder is Oleicola El
Tejar, built a large scale factory. When working fully it is capable of
producing 5,000 metric tonnes a year of activated carbon from olive stones.
Currently it produces 1,250 metric tonnes per year.

Oleicola El Tejar also purchases waste cake from oil processors in order to
extract the oil remaining in the waste. They do this via advanced
centrifugal machines capable of extracting the maximum oil from the waste.
After an experimental plant had been working for a year with highly
satisfactory results, and after patenting the procedure, they installed an
industrial plant for the extraction of the olive oil contained in the waste
by centrifugalisation. The plant is located in Palenciana in the province of
Cordoba and has been working since the 1994-95 season with very satisfactory
results. This technology has spread to a large number of oil pressing
companies which have also installed machinery for secondary continuous
centrifugalisation of waste cake.

After this process they are left with a damp exhausted product which is
necessary to eliminate. This is carried out by using it as fuel in a
generating plant installed in Palenciana by a separate company formed in
partnership with the region's electricity suppliers. This plant has been
working to full capacity since 1995. The plant uses the waste at 18 tonnes
an hour which produces about 13,000 kilowatts ... enough energy to meet the
needs of a town of 20,000 people! These positive experiences have encouraged
other projects to be set up which have been promoted by Oleicola El Tejar
such as the plant of 5.7 megawatts also built in the same complex in
Palenciana.

Pruning refuse directly from the olive groves will also be used as biofuel.
The use of this biomass as a source of renewable energy implies an important
step forward from an ecological point of view. Apart from consuming a huge
amount of refuse, there is also the advantage that it does not have any
sulphur in it and does not produce the emissions that are common to
traditional generating plants. Basically steam and carbon dioxide are the
only things that are emitted by the chimney, and the latter is in a much
lower quantity than that emitted by the olive trees during the vegetative
state of producing the olives! With regard to the particles that are not
burnt, these amount to less than half of the quantity permitted by the
European Union.

In order that the waste from pruning may be fully exploited, they have a
machine which collects, chops and loads the branches. This provides a
product which has various uses. The leaves can be used for animal feed, the
wood for charcoal, and both can be used for fuel.

Apart from lowering the bills and reducing energy dependence, the use of the
biomass as a fuel means that it is transformed into a source of renewable
energy whereas it formerly cost money to eliminate it.

Locating all the installations needed for carrying out the different
processes of olive by-product management on the same site has been a novel
and singular idea which could be applied in other places and other
agricultural industries.

Oleicola El Tejar are also planning the construction of a plant for the
transesterification of vegetable oils for the production of methyl extracts
as a substitute for diesel fuels in vehicles.

Research has enabled them to obtain important results in the improvement of
the process to obtain olive oil through the perfecting of a system that
separates the olive into the stone, skin and pulp. The oil is then extracted
from the pulp only and the quality is excellent. This technology has been
working for two years with positive results and augers expansion in the next
few years.

Along the same lines, they are currently researching the possibility of
extracting the components of high value contained in the inner kernel of the
olive stone to find ecological or cosmetic uses.

Satisfied but never conformist, Oleicola El Tejar continues to promote new
activities for all facets of the olive industry.

Oleicola El Tejar's commitment to the environment must, can and will, go
hand-in-hand with progress and the generation of wealth.

Olives Australia wishes to thank the Directors and staff of Oleicola El
Tejar for their hospitality during the 1998 Olive Researh Tour. Their
dedication to the ongoing development of profitable waste usage is unmatched
in the world industry.


WASTE IN OUR OLIVE INDUSTRY by Andrew Burgess

The expansion of the Australian Olive Industry is creating many
opportunities for Australian investors. However, along with these
opportunities are challenges which need to be met. The olive fruit in the
form that it is taken from the tree, must be processed by some method to
transform it into a usable product.

In many cases processing produces the end product plus an unwanted waste
product that must be either reused or disposed of in an environmentally
friendly and economic way.

The techniques for processing olives into oil and table fruit were mainly
developed when water was abundant and no restrictions on the disposal of
by-products was anticipated. Values have changed and we are now forced by
law (and our own sense of environmental responsibility) to abide by certain
rules when disposing of our industry's waste. If our industry is to continue
attracting the support of the consumer and the investment community it is
critical that we confront the issue of how to best manage our by-products.

Technology is on our side and Australian waste management companies are some
of the leaders in their field. Investors in olive processing will need to
adopt world-best practice and have waste management principles built in to
their process from the very beginning.

Olive Oil
New technology has provided a welcome change in olive oil extraction. The
modern process involves only separating two phases from the olive flesh (oil
and waste paste) instead of the traditional three (oil, vegetable water and
cake). This has seen a major reduction in 'alpechin' (waste extraction
water), which for years has been one of the main pollutants of olive oil
processing countries in the Mediterranean. This journal's story on El Tejar
in Spain shows how technology has identified an environmentally and economic
way of using the waste cake produced from the oil extraction process to
generate electricity and other valuable products.

A description of by-products that may result from oil extraction follows:

Crude Olive Cake - The residue which remains after the first pressing of the
olives through traditional and continuous machines. There is still a small
amount of oil in this cake. If not going on for further processing, this
cake is often used for heating, for animal feed supplement or returned to
the olive grove as a mulch.

Exhausted Olive Cake - The residue that is left after the above crude olive
cake has any remaining oil extracted from it by using solvents such as
hexane. This cake is also often used for heating, for animal feed supplement
or returned to the olive grove as a mulch.

Partly Destoned Olive Cake - Produced if some of the crushed olive seeds are
removed from the paste after processing. This cake is also often used for
heating, for animal feed supplement or returned to the olive grove as a
mulch.

Olive Pulp - The residual paste which is produced if the whole olive seeds
are removed from the paste prior to processing. This residual paste has a
very high water content and is difficult to store or dispose of.

Vegetable Water - The brown watery liquid which has been separated from the
oil by centrifugation or sedimentation after pressing. The invention of two
phase oil extraction has reduced the pollution problems of this waste
product by up to 90%.
Source: An Introduction to Olive Oil Processing. ($12 from Olives Australia)

(Further uses for the above by-products can be found in the El Tejar
article)

Table Olives
The processing of table olives also produces waste water, the quantity of
which differs depending on the method of processing.

Commercial Method Waste water litres/kg fruit produced
Spanish-style (green olives) 1.5 - 3.0
Untreated green and turning olives 0.5
California green-ripe olives 1.0 - 3.0
California black-ripe olives 1.5 - 6.0
Naturally black olives 0.5
Source: Table Olives Production and Processing

Of this group we can see that directly brined olives produce the least
amount of waste water per kilogram of fruit produced. The highest producer
of waste water is the California black-ripe method. This is because it goes
through a lye (caustic soda) treatment to artificially turn the olives
black. It not only produces more waste water but has a higher pollutant
level because of the intensive lye treatment.

Olive Pits (Seeds)
Traditionally, olive pits have not been a problem, but with the introduction
of the pitting and stuffing machine, led by Sadrym of Seville, large volumes
of pits are now produced. The development of new machines has enabled the
bulk production of olives in many different forms, sliced, wedged, pitted
and stuffed olives with a myriad of different fillings. All of these
products result in large volumes of olive pits.

Most of these pits are bought for the extraction of oil from the seed but
they can also be used as a form of fuel. The main source of steam for
sterilisation and heating in Californian olive factories is generated by
burning the olive pits. They are also packaged and sold as BBQ fuel,
advertising a subtle olive aroma to the home BBQ. El Tejar is using them in
bricks, feeds and plastics and in the production of activated carbon.

In future years the Australian Olive industry will start to generate
considerable amounts of some of these by- products and so it is important
that a comprehensive waste management plan is researched and developed. Most
of the answers are already available through Mediterranean research centres
and companies.

For those people wishing to establish large contract processing ventures,
having the answers to waste problems will greatly streamline the path of
government and council regulations.

In the Grove
There is little waste produced in the grove itself that cannot be dealt with
in an efficient and beneficial way. Prunings can be chopped or shredded into
small pieces and either composted or spread back under the trees as mulch.
Machines are being developed that will pick up the prunings from the row,
chop them up and spit them back under the tree or into a trailer.

If spread under the trees it will need to be monitored to ensure that it is
not providing a habitat and breeding ground for any pests. Grasses and weeds
growing between the rows can be slashed, thereby adding to the organic
matter in the soil and at the same time mulching the trees.
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