OLEAF4VALUE

Olive groves are a common sight throughout southern Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean countries and in Portugal. While the fruit of the olive tree is a well-known and widely used resource, olive production also creates around 4.5 million tonnes of leaves each year as a by-product. Currently, to avoid problems; these needs to be removed from the fields and the mills and disposed of.  Although rich in potential bio-resources, the leaf mass is notoriously difficult to work with; only around 0.2% of this is currently used for extracts; the remainder is burnt – either in the fields or used for fuel – or fed to animals. However, disposing of them in this way means that a potential 1 million tonnes of bioactive compounds, 1 million tonnes of cellulose and 1.5 million tonnes of lignin are underexploited.

To address this, the OLEAF4VALUE project has been created to develop a complete valorisation system for these olive leaves. It will extract and isolate high added value bioactive compounds (polyphenols, triterpenoids, essential oils, lipids, lignocellulose) with high-market potential in the food, feed, chemical, nutraceutical, cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors.

The project has assembled a consortium to ensure this biomass is fully valorised at all stages of the value chain. This will use advanced, sustainable green extraction and isolation technologies to sequentially separate all fractions and compounds of value while pursuing a zero-waste approach. These will use to develop tailor made products to match end-user market needs from high value sectors; the presence of the large companies in the consortium will ensure the products are properly market oriented. 

ZERO-E will lead WP5 OLEAF4VALUE impact assessment, regulatory & consumer considerations. WP5 will address the feasibility of the technological innovations within OLEAF4VALUE and provide a range of impact studies to assess their effectiveness by examining economic, environmental, and social factors. LCA methodologies will be based on available standards, certification and validated approaches.