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Agriculture
Volume 15
Issue 21
10.3390/agriculture15212204
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This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

Biogas Production from Olive Oil Mill Byproducts: A Comparative Study of Two Treatments for Pursuing a Biorefinery Approach

by
Jessica Di Mario
1,
Antonella Ranucci
1,
Alberto Maria Gambelli
1,*,
Marco Rallini
2,
Dario Priolo
3,
Monica Brienza
4,
Debora Puglia
2,
Daniele Del Buono
3 and
Giovanni Gigliotti
1
1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 93, 06125 Perugia, Italy
2
Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali (INSTM)—University of Perugia Research Unit (UdR Perugia), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Perugia, Strada di Pentima 4, 05100 Terni, Italy
3
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy
4
Department of Sciences, University of Basilicata, Via dell’Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Agriculture 2025, 15(21), 2204; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15212204
Submission received: 25 August 2025 / Revised: 19 October 2025 / Accepted: 21 October 2025 / Published: 23 October 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Agriculture: From Waste to Biostimulants, Biofertilisers and Bioenergy)
Versions Notes

Abstract

Olive cultivation is one of the most widespread agro-industrial activities in the Mediterranean area. However, required pretreatments often affect the anaerobic digestion process, promoting or inhibiting the overall yield. Therefore, the efficiency of Anaerobic Digestion (AD) processes cannot be established in advance but needs to be experimentally validated for each biomass-pretreatment combination. Following the present purpose, these biomasses were firstly treated: the olive pomace (OP) with a procedure based on the use of an ionic liquid (IL) composed of triethylamine and sulfuric acid [Et3N][HSO4] to remove hemicellulose and lignin and recover the insolubilized OP, while olive mill wastewater (OW) was processed via freeze-drying. The resulting materials, the pulp from olive pomace (POP) and freeze-dried OW (FDOW), were then digested using lab-scale anaerobic reactors. The biogas production was then compared with the quantity obtained by digesting the same untreated biomasses (OW and OP). The FDOW showed the highest biogas production due to the freeze-drying treatment that led to some morphological and structural surface modifications of OW (respectively, 658 mL vs. 79 mL/g for the two matrices), prompting microorganism activity. Conversely, the method based on the use of IL significantly reduced the nitrogen content of POP, thus resulting in the lowest biogas production, which ceased by the second day. To address this issue, we co-digested POP with the brewery’s spent grain, a biomass rich in nitrogen. This step enhanced the biogas yield of POP, resulting in an extended anaerobic digestion period and the production of 466 mL/g. Additionally, we tested FDOW in co-digestion with BSG to evaluate improvements in production. The codigestion of the two matrices increased the biogas yield of FDOW from 944 to 1131 mL/g.
Keywords: bioeconomy; biorefinery; brewery’s spent grain; olive mill wastewater; olive pomace bioeconomy; biorefinery; brewery’s spent grain; olive mill wastewater; olive pomace

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MDPI and ACS Style

Di Mario, J.; Ranucci, A.; Gambelli, A.M.; Rallini, M.; Priolo, D.; Brienza, M.; Puglia, D.; Del Buono, D.; Gigliotti, G. Biogas Production from Olive Oil Mill Byproducts: A Comparative Study of Two Treatments for Pursuing a Biorefinery Approach. Agriculture 2025, 15, 2204. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15212204

AMA Style

Di Mario J, Ranucci A, Gambelli AM, Rallini M, Priolo D, Brienza M, Puglia D, Del Buono D, Gigliotti G. Biogas Production from Olive Oil Mill Byproducts: A Comparative Study of Two Treatments for Pursuing a Biorefinery Approach. Agriculture. 2025; 15(21):2204. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15212204

Chicago/Turabian Style

Di Mario, Jessica, Antonella Ranucci, Alberto Maria Gambelli, Marco Rallini, Dario Priolo, Monica Brienza, Debora Puglia, Daniele Del Buono, and Giovanni Gigliotti. 2025. "Biogas Production from Olive Oil Mill Byproducts: A Comparative Study of Two Treatments for Pursuing a Biorefinery Approach" Agriculture 15, no. 21: 2204. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15212204

APA Style

Di Mario, J., Ranucci, A., Gambelli, A. M., Rallini, M., Priolo, D., Brienza, M., Puglia, D., Del Buono, D., & Gigliotti, G. (2025). Biogas Production from Olive Oil Mill Byproducts: A Comparative Study of Two Treatments for Pursuing a Biorefinery Approach. Agriculture, 15(21), 2204. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15212204

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