No abstract

During the last few decades, olive oil industrial sector has grown as a result of the modernization of olive oil mills, in response to the increasing demand of olive oil worldwide. "s an undesired side efect, the amount of olive mill eluents OME) increased, especially as a result of changing old batch press method for the continuous centrifugation-based olive oil production processes currently used, which ensure higher productivity. This chapter presents the state of the art of OME management, with focus on biological and advanced oxidation processes, either alone or in combination, varying in complexity, ease of operation and costs associated. Up to this moment, there isn't a management strategy that can be adopted in a global scale, feasible in diferent socio-economic contexts and production scales. The most reasonable approach is to regard OME valorisation as a regional problem, deining decentralized treatment that in some cases can be implemented for a group of olive oil mills in the same geographic area. This aspect is receiving strong atention as European Commission is promoting the transition towards a circular economy, which aims at closing the production loop by recycling and reusing resources, bringing beneits for the environment, society and the economy.