OLEAF4VALUE: Olive leaf multi-product cascade based biorefinery
The olive oil industry in the Mediterranean countries produces 4,5 million tonnes of olive leaves each year. These leaves – a source of bioactive compounds – need to be removed from fields and olive mills. Nowadays this biomass is burnt on the fields, fed to cattle or combusted to produce energy.
The EU-funded OLEAF4VALUE project has set up a consortium of highly experienced partners to develop a valorisation system for this biomass. The consortium will address all levels of the value chain: raw material, biorefining, post-extraction technologies, market validation and sustainability assessment.
OLEAF4VALUE will create the foundations of a smart value chain based on the recently developed 4.0 concept Smart Dynamic Multi-Valorisation-Route Biorefinery, or SAMBIO, for the cascade valorisation of olive biomass.
More information can be found here.
- The main aim of the project is to deliver a sustainable solution aimed to fully valorise olive leaves, by setting up six new value chains that will introduce 24 bio-based cost-effective products on the market, thus creating value along the whole chain with a specific focus on the primary sector.
- OLEAF4VALUE will develop a complete valorisation system: from the biomass to tailormade high and very high added value products for different market applications, thus going further than the traditional cascading approach, through the development of a smart dynamic approach (SAMBIO) that will define the optimal valorisation route for a sustainable and cost-effective process.