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

Diego Cardoza,Encarnación Ruiz,Paloma Manzanares,Eulogio Castro,Inmaculada Romero,Juan Carlos López-Linares,Francisco J Gallego,Teresa Martínez

doi:10.3390/en14113052

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 olive-derived 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.

Highlights

The introduction of renewable energies in the energy matrix has entailed a key advance at a global level to move away from the current fossil fuels-based economic system
Considering that more than 73% of the olive tree cultivation in Spain is concentrated in the provinces of Jaén, Córdoba and Seville, these provinces were selected as the study area for the location of biorefineries based in olive-derived biomass
The study covers an area of 2,753,085 hectares and it is worth highlighting that more than 42% is covered by olive tree crop [24]

Summary

Introduction

The introduction of renewable energies in the energy matrix has entailed a key advance at a global level to move away from the current fossil fuels-based economic system. The recast Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001/EU [2] sets a new binding renewable energy objective for 2030 in the EU of not less than 32%, including new supplies, to allow for self-consumption of renewable energy, an enlarged 14% target for the contribution of renewable fuels in transport by 2030 and reinforced criteria for warranting bioenergy sustainability. These recent goals of the European Union in renewable energies aim at contributing to reaching the EU s objective to be climate-neutral by 2050—an economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. All these objectives are at the heart of the European Green Deal Action Plan, approved at the end of 2019, to face the challenges that the fulfilment of the goals assumed by world leaders in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development involve [3]

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Results

Conclusion