Recently, "Design Principles for Sustainable Green Chemistry and Engineering" (DGCE) have been presented so that people can make their Chemistry and Engineering "greener" and more sustainable. Both principles are grouped into three categories: (i) maximize resource efficiency, (ii) eliminate and minimize hazards and pollution, and (iii) design systems holistically and using life cycle thinking. From this point view, olive-pomace oil production will be revised in this presentation. Olive-pomace is the solis by-product generated from olive oil extraction. This is obtained by treating olive pomace with solvents (Chemical Process) or by centrifugation (Physical process). The interest in this oil is growing due to its economic value and because it contains all functional compounds present in virgin olive oil, some of them even in a higher concentration than in virgin olive oils, such as erythrodiol and triterpenci acids. Crude oils have be refined to remove unwanted minor components that make oils unappealing to consumers. Two main processes to remove free fatty acids are alkaline and physical (neutralizing distillation) refining. The alkaline neutralization process has major drawbacks, such as relatively low yields because of oil losses due to emulsification and saponification of neutral oi. Also, a considerable amount of effluent is generated. In the present work, olive-pomace oils obtained by centrifugation were refined by physical means at high temperature and vacuum. Neither steam nor reagents were used. The results were compared to other samples that were refined by the traditional process, i.e. with alkali.

Resumen del trabajo presentado al XVII Congreso Latinoamericano y Exposición sobre Grasas, Aceites y Lípidos de AOCS, celebrado en Cancún (México) del 11 al 14 de septiembre de 2017.

Peer reviewed