Oil mill waste management training mission

31st August 2011 | Updated: 7th September 2011

A seminar dealing with the reduction of the environmental impact of olive oil production, “Horizon 2020 Capacity Building / Mediterranean Environment Programme” was held in March 2011 in Meknes (Morocco). As a result of the seminar, FODEP (Fons de Dépollution Industrielle), the Kingdom of Morocco's Ministry of the Environment body, which promotes projects of environmental interest in partnership with the German Financial Cooperation Agency (KfW), expressed its interest in finding out at first-hand how olive production waste is dealt with in Andalusia (Spain), the largest olive oil producer in the world.

The CP/RAC thus arranged a training visit for two civil servants from FODEP, which took place between 29 May and 8 June 2011. The visit took in the main centres of interest for research and management of such waste. These include the Institute of Fat run by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Seville; the Agriculture and Fisheries Research and Training Institute (IFAPA) in Jaen; the olive oil science and technology Park (GEOLIT) in Jaen; various olive oil producing cooperatives and companies in Cordoba and Jaen; various composting centres of the two-stage olive oil production waste; electrocoagulation purification units; and a plant to recover energy from the olive sector by-products and other biomass in Cordoba.

One of the main impressions the visit made was that the waste composting option that is spreading in Andalusia would be a good model to consider for the kind of oil mill mainly in operation in Morocco (which are dispersed around the country, small in size and family-run), rather than other options such as energy recovery, which require highly-concentrated production, large-scale investment and a favourable electricity pricing policy.

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