Scientists create biofuel from waste water used to make olive oil
Researchers at Mulhouse Institute of Materials Science in France have developed a way to transform the polluting waste water that derives from olive oil production into fertiliser and biofuel. Olive mills in Mediterranean countries produce about eight billion gallons of waste water, much of which is disposed of irresponsibly. The scientists embedded the waste water into another waste product, cypress sawdust, then exposed the material to high temperatures without oxygen, a process known as pyrolysis. The material then decomposes into combustible gases and charcoal, the former of which can be condensed into biofuel and the latter used as a fertiliser.

In France, scientists at Mulhouse Institute of Materials Science are finding ways to use olive oil wastewater, a harmful pollutant, for useful products, like biofuel and fertilizer. They mixed wastewater created from olive oil production with cypress sawdust, another waste product that is common in the Mediterranean, where 97 percent of the world’s olive oil is produced. The mixture was dried and water collected as it evaporated. The water was clean and used for crop irrigation and the dried material was exposed to high temperatures without oxygen (pyrolysis) which caused it to decompose into combustible gas and charcoal pellets. The gas was then collected and condensed into a biobased oil that could be used as a heat source and the charcoal used as crop fertilizer. In field tests, they found that vegetation grown with the charcoal biofertilizer had improved plant growth than those without the biofertilizer.