Technology for treatment and recycling of the water used to wash olives

Socio principal: ARGUS UMWELTBIOTECHNOLOGIE GMBH

Socios participantes: ARGUS UMWELTBIOTECHNOLOGIE GMBH; ICA S.R.L.; INNOVA S.P.A. ; KOKOTSAKIS E. & OTHERS INC ; LABOR SRL. ; NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION ; TECNOPROCESS SNC ; TORREDONJIMENO S.C.A. ; UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA ; UNIVERSITY OF ROME "LA SAPIENZA"

Programa: Fifth Framework Programme

Inicio del proyecto: Mon, 15/05/2000

Finalización del proyecto: Mon, 14/05/2001

Más información

The first operation in olive oil production is the washing of the olives, which is needed to eliminate all the impurities - The water used in this process must be drinkable, for reasons of food hygiene, and about 30 to 50 litres are required for each quintal of olives. Nowadays, this water in order to avoid the high costs for the disposal, is used for irrigation or simply sent to sewage. Hence such process causes a great consumption of drinkable water. Moreover, the high level of toxicity of this waste causes a strong environmental impact being the water acid (pH is between 3 and 5) and with strong organic carbon content. The aim of the project is to develop a system, based on ultra or micro filtration and reverse osmosis, capable of recycling the 90% of the water used, and producing, as waste, a small amount of polluting solution, to be sent to disposal together with other waste streams. The system will be specifically designed for SMEs, being low cost and small dimensions two guidelines.