Waste2Fuel

The socio-economic importance of the olive oil production is significant in the Mediterranean region, both in terms of wealth and tradition. However, the extraction of olive oil generates huge quantities of wastes that may have a great impact on land and water environments because of their high phytotoxicity. Especially olive mill wastewater (OMWW) is one of the major environmental pollutants in olive oil industry. The main objective of the Waste2Fuel project is to design smart and sutainable integrated thermochemical catalytic processes of residues from olive mills: Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of olive mill wastewater (OMWW) and fast pyrolysis of olive mill wastewater sludge (OMWWS). Indeed, the mean byproducts resulting from OMWW-HTC treatment are a solid phase enriched in carbon, called biochar and a liquid phase (residual water with less dissolved organic and phenolic compounds). HTC biochar will be tested as fuel in combustion systems and will also be utilized in high-value applications, such as soil bio-fertilizer and as catalyst or/and catalyst support. The HTC residual water will be characterized, treated and used in soil irrigation since the organic and the toxic compounds will be reduced under the permitted limits. Waste2Fuel project’s concept includes also the conversion of OMWWS to a Green diesel through a catalytic pyrolysis process. The green diesel is then used as biofuel in an internal combustion engine (IC-Engine) for automotive application to be used for clean transportation. All above steps will be experimentally proved during the project. Moreover, a theoretical study will also take place for the use of a fraction of the heat from the pyrolysis non-condensable gases (alternatively to a solar collector) in a sorption-refrigeration machine for pyrolysis gases cooling and condensation to produce bio-oil. In the long term, Waste2Fuel project will facilitate the development of a new integrated process, based on renewables for clean and smart agriculture and transportation. The suggested integrated process will boost the development of local economies in the Mediterranean area by producing biofuels (green diesel & biochar), bio-fertilizer (biochar), relatively clean water for irrigation, heat and cooling from olive mills wastes.