Removal of heavy metals from acid mining effluents by hydrolyzed olive cake.

The present study aims to solve two major challenges of the current society. On the one hand, it investigated the heavy metal removal from mining wastewater. On the other hand, it proposed an alternative use for olive cake.

Optimization of the sugar hydrothermal extraction process from olive cake using neuro-fuzzy models.

The optimization of the hydrothermal extraction step in the biorefinery scheme in order to obtain sugars and antioxidants from olive cake was carried out. This process using water and low temperatures for the olive cake has not been previously studied by other authors. Central Composite Design of experiments was carried out.

Neural fuzzy modelization of copper removal from water by biosorption in fixed-bed columns using olive stone and pinion shell.

Continuous copper biosorption in fixed-bed column by olive stone and pinion shell was studied. The effect of three operational parameters was analyzed: feed flow rate (2-6 ml/min), inlet copper concentration (40-100 mg/L) and bed-height (4.4-13.

Kinetics of thermal decomposition of some biomasses in an inert environment. An investigation of the effect of lead loaded by biosorption.

The thermal behavior of some types of raw and lead-polluted biomasses typical in south Spain was studied by non-isothermal thermogravimetry. Experiments were carried out in nitrogen atmosphere at three heating rates (5, 10 and 20°C/min). The results of thermogravimetric tests carried out proved that the presence of lead did not change the main degradation pathways of selected biomass (almond shell (AS) and olive pomace (OP)).

Effect of torrefaction conditions on greenhouse crop residue: Optimization of conditions to upgrade solid characteristics.

This work investigated the possibility of using a greenhouse crop waste as a fuel, since it is an abundant residue in the Mediterranean area of Spain. The residue is mainly composed by biomass with a little quantity of plastic. The physical and chemical characteristics of the biomass were determined by elemental analysis, proximate analysis, FT-IR, FE-SEM and thermogravimetry.