Olive Energy!

Credit: blog.fairwaymarket.com

Science Daily has covered a story about researchers from Sweden's KTH Institute of Technology finding a way to repurpose toxic waste generated from olive oil production by turning it into heat and power. The lead researcher, Carin Lagergren, had the opportunity to share this project with President Obama, the first US president to visit KTH. He apparently inquired about how valuable the technology is at this point for, say, a farmer in the US--the current state of the technology is that it doesn't produce enough energy or save enough money to be a cost effective or efficient purchase, but Carina is hoping to change that in the future.

The process has three steps: turning the waste matter into biogas, reforming the biogas into carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and introducing oxygen into the reformer to turn the gases into heat and electricity. Although the energy production from this process is low right now (it produce 1 kWh toward the olive oil production plant that provides the waste matter), KTH is planning to apply for funding to scale to project bigger, providing 50% of the energy needs of the olive oil production plant. The point of this research, however, is primarily finding a new purpose for the waste matter of olive oil production, and having an alternative energy source is more of an advantage.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150126083818.htm