4BIOLIVE

Target audience

The project's results may be of interest to many industrial sectors, including pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, food packaging, cosmetics, biotechnology and chemicals, which are interested in using advanced and environmentally friendly products.

Furthermore, during the project development period, the consortium will support companies interested in validating the bio-stimulants, biofertilisers and biopolymers produced.

Project objective

The main objective of 4BIOLIVE is to extract bioactive substances and nutrients from olive oil waste in order to produce:

• bio-stimulants and biofertilisers,
• valorise the lignocellulosic fraction to obtain biopolymers, and
• recover bioenergy from residual biomass.

These substances and nutrients are identified as new agroecological farming solutions to improve agroecosystem resilience from a circular economy perspective. This overarching objective will be pursued through four ambitious research objectives:

• Identifying high-value ingredients in olive oil waste for the extraction of bio-stimulants and biofertilisers.
• Using the lignocellulosic fraction as a bio-stimulant and biofertiliser.
• Valorising residual biomass to produce biogas and organic soil fertilisers.
• Assessing the social, economic and environmental impacts in the Mediterranean region.

Project description

Olive cultivation and the olive oil industry are extremely important in Mediterranean countries, which together produce more than 98% of the world's olive oil. However, olive oil extraction generates large quantities of wet and solid by-products that may be harmful to the environment, as they can negatively affect soil microbial populations, aquatic ecosystems and air quality through gas emissions. In addition to containing a high percentage of water (up to 92%), olive oil waste contains phenolic compounds, lignin, sugars, organic acids and large quantities of nutrients. All these components could be reused after treatment, purification and stabilisation, making it possible to recover bioactive compounds and mineral nutrients.

In this context, the 4BIOLIVE project aims to characterise, purify and use these olive oil waste extracts to obtain bioactive materials capable of stimulating growth and biomass production in crops.

The project aims to address current intensive agriculture by proposing a new farming system that uses the natural resources contained in olive oil waste from a circular bioeconomy perspective.

Project funded by EU H2020 PRIMA. Coordinated by the University of Perugia.

Research project PCI2021-121979 funded by:

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