Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Buildings for Sustainable Agri-Food Production—A Method Applied to an Olive Oil Mill

Abstract

Abstract:The sustainability of agri-food products is an increasingly pressing need. It is fundamental to consider the various needs related to the factors of production and to workers, which are different from those of products and plants, as well as new requirements, such as environmental hygiene, protection from pests, and perishability control. To that purpose, this work proposes a method for in-use performance assessment (Post-Occupancy Evaluation) in food processing buildings. The method was applied to a traditional olive oil mill in Calabria. The building was thoroughly checked, and a questionnaire was given to the employees. An overall negative judgement value was recorded only for the oil storage area. The indoor thermal conditions of this area were monitored by a sensor network. The results obtained showed that the temperature in the oil storage area sometimes reached and exceeded 30 • C, while the optimal maximum temperature for the storage of extra-virgin olive oil should not go beyond 20 • C to preserve its organoleptic characteristics. To solve the problems detected, modelling and analyses were carried out with a dynamic thermal software program. A few minor building interventions were proposed and the indoor thermal values, obtained from the dynamic thermal simulation, showed a clear improvement in the building behavior in terms of protection from high temperatures, and lower energy consumption to diminish the environmental indoor temperature.

Impact of Service Life on the Environmental Performance of Buildings

“…Environmental performance of buildings is also defined as a quantified relationship between occupant's comfort level and environmental impacts [52][53][54]. Embodied and operational impacts are usually two main categories of environmental impacts.…”

Net Electricity and Heat Generated by Reusing Mediterranean Agro-Industrial By-Products

“…Olive oil consumption is increasing worldwide by promoting intensive olive tree cultivation, which causes several environmental impacts in terms of resource depletion, land degradation, pollutant emissions, and waste generation [59,60]. The production of olive oil is characterised by significant amounts of residues, both solid (olive pomace) and liquid (olive mill wastewater), and their management is a challenge for the olive mill operators from both an economic and an environmental perspective [61][62][63].…”

“…Therefore, in previous studies the availability of citrus pulp and olive pomace at a local level was investigated with the final aim of developing the biogas sector [28,66,70,71]. significant amounts of residues, both solid (olive pomace) and liquid (olive mill wastewater), and their management is a challenge for the olive mill operators from both an economic and an environmental perspective [61][62][63].…”

Assessment of Passive Retrofitting Strategies to Improve the Thermal Performance of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Storage Area in Traditional Rural Olive Mills

“…Reggio Calabria has a typical Mediterranean climate, with a mild temperature in winter (T > 0 • C) and warm summers (T max > 30 • C), with a strong day time and night time change of temperature. In the summer, the environmental indoor temperature of the EVOO mill storage area is often higher than 35 • C [8].…”

“…In fact, reuse is possible if it implies little intervention on the original building structure [7]. However, it is necessary to remark that modern rural buildings and food processing buildings are required to have particular indoor environmental characteristics because the indoor microclimate influences the chemical, physical and biological changes taking place during the production process [8,9].…”