Experts look at turning olive oil production waste into biodiesel

Some of the waste from the production of olive oil could be used in the manufacture of biodiesel, researchers suggest.

Most of the overall mass of an olive does not end up in the final oil product and could be used in other applications rather than being thrown away, say experts from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, who are using magnetic resonance imaging technology to identify the contents of olives to find out which parts can be utilised.

Speaking to Earth911.com, head of the institution's Phyto-Lipid Biotechnology Lab Professor Zeev Wiesman explains: "We can use the lipids in the waste to make biodiesel and we can take the organic material that's left from that and ferment it into ethanol. That contains more energy than corn. Everyone is looking for energy sources to replace petrol."

Professor Wiesman and his team are using their findings to aid biodiesel production in Sudan, Libya and Algeria.

A study concluded in 2006 by experts from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of New Hampshire in the US demonstrated how olive oil could be used to produce biodiesel with the aid of certain enzymes.

Published in the journal Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, the research found that biodiesel can be made through the transesterification of olive oil-based triglycerides with Novozym435 and methanol.