Innovative technologies in EVO oil extraction: an economic and environmental impact analysis

For Italian agro-food enterprises and especially in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) industrial process, structural investments or marginal enhancement of current plant performances could represent an important opportunity to increase the value-added of products linked, for example, to improvement of organoleptic parameters and potential reduction of environmental loads. This paper analyses the economic and environmental impacts in EVOO extraction and its effects on oil yield and quality. The technological innovation under study provides for the use of extraction plant with low oxidative impact, heating of paste before malaxation and a special decanter that avoids the final vertical centrifugation. A control scenario, with a conventional plant was considered in order to make a comparison analysis. A joint use of Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was implemented respectively for economic and environmental analyses, by using a common methodological framework. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to identify the uncertain factors that may significantly affect the LCA and LCC results. The results demonstrated that innovative olive mill plant implies the higher quality of EVO oil obtained, although the major extraction yield was linked to conventional plant. As the economic and environmental results were strictly dependent on the production yield, the greatest extraction cost and the lower profitability, as well as the highest environmental impacts were achieved with the innovative extraction system.