Location of Biorefineries Based on Olive-Derived Biomass in Andalusia, Spain

Abstract

A biorefinery integrated process based on lignocellulosic feedstock is especially interesting

in rural areas with a high density of agricultural and agro-industrial wastes, which is the case

for olive crop areas and their associated industries. In the region of Andalusia, in the south of

Spain, the provinces of Jaén, Córdoba and Seville accumulate more than 70% of the olive wastes

generated in Spain. Therefore, the valorisation of these wastes is a matter of interest from both an

environmental and a social point of view. The olive biorefinery involves a multi-product process from

different raw materials: olive leaves, exhausted olive pomace, olive stones and olive tree pruning

residues. Biorefinery processes associated with these wastes would allow their valorisation to produce

bioenergy and high value-added renewable products. In this work, using geographic information

system tools, the biomass from olive crop fields, mills and olive pomace-extracting industries,

where these wastes are generated, was determined and quantified in the study area. In addition,

the vulnerability of the territory was evaluated through an environmental and territorial analysis

that allowed for the determination of the reception capacity of the study area. Then, information

layers corresponding to the availability of the four biomass wastes, and layers corresponding to the

environmental fragility of the study area were overlapped and they resulted in an overall map. This

made it possible to identify the best areas for the implementation of the biorefineries based on olivederived

biomass. Finally, as an example, three zones were selected for this purpose. These locations

corresponded to low fragility areas with a high availability of biomass (more than 300,000 tons/year) in a 30 km radius, which would ensure the biomass supply.