Stabilization of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

The conservation of virgin olive oil quality during its shelf life could be considered a key issue for olive oil industry. To improve the product stability, virgin olive oils should not be stored with considerable amounts of suspended solids and water. The latter have to be removed from oil musts. The chapter reviews the main spread technologies and those recently proposed for the removal of suspended solids and the water from extra-virgin olive oils. These technologies are described from an engineering perspective, and their effects on product quality during storage are discussed

The spent cake from olive oil filtration as biomass feedstock

The most widespread method for virgin olive oil filtration at industrial scale is the so-called precoat body-feed filtration by means of filter aids, mainly consisting of perlite and cellulose. The residue of the process is a spent filtration cake, that has potential for upgrading if understood in the context of the biorefining concept. Data about the production and composition of the spent cake were collected from an industrial case-study. The potential availability of the spent cake has been estimated both at local (the industrial case-study) and large scale (Spain context). The mean percentage composition of the spent cake is 5 % oil impurities, 7 % cellulose, 28 % perlite, 52 % oil and 8 % water. About 10 g of spent cake are produced per kilogram of virgin olive oil to be processed; while about 316 and 7482 Mg of spent cake could be potentially available for the local and large scale scenarios, respectively. Owing to its diversified composition entailing oil and waxes, cellulose and mineral fractions, the spent cake appears a valuable feedstock to supplement the supply of the emerging biorefineries technologies

A New Extract from Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) By-Products as a Potential Oenological Tannin: Preliminary Characterization and Comparison with Existing Commercial Products

Oenotannins are nowadays widely used as co-adjuvant in the winemaking process. The increasing cultivation and consumption of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) leads to high amounts of by-products, mainly peels. Aim of this study was to propose a dried tannin-rich extract from pomegranate by-products as a new oenotannin. A decoction was prepared from mesocarp of the Wonderful pomegranate variety only using hot water as extracting solvent. The dried decoction was physical-chemically characterized and compared to 7 existing commercial oenotannins from different botanical origin (grape seed, oak, gallnut), according to UV-Vis Spectroscopy, Colorimetric analysis (CIELab), gelatin index, reactivity to proteins, HPLC-DAD, DPPH, and Total Polyphenols content by both Folin-Ciocalteu and the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) methods. Data showed the lowest antiradical (AR) and total polyphenolic content (TPC) for the pomegranate tannin but also the highest AR/TPC ratio suggesting a good radical scavenging potential of this new tannin. Pomegranate tannin showed high reactivity with proteins, a unique chromatographic profile, and a low color impact. The new pomegranate tannin showed an interesting potential for oenological applications in particular for reducing the use of sulfites during vinification and for the white wine stabilization

Environmental Impact Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management in Florence, Italy

Research Paper - Facing the trouble of municipal solid waste (MSW) management is a rising challenge of urbanized areas. Yearly data of waste management from the city of Florence (Italy) and neighboring municipalities were gathered over 2015 year. About 412105 t of waste were collected, where 202794 t were mixed-waste and 72540 t were organic. Fractions were treated in a centralized selecting-composting plant. The outgoing materials were further treated in external plants for additional selection, composting, incineration, landfilling. The present study was aimed to assess the environmental impact of such waste management applying LCA technique. The functional unit was \u201cone year mixed and organic waste treatment at Florence and neighboring municipalities\u201d. System boundaries included waste collection, final transport, working of the selecting-composting plant. System expansion was used to account for energy recovery (electricity) from waste. Background data were sourced from ELCD-core3-LCI database. Life cycle impact assessment (classification and characterization) was performed by ILCD midpoint method. Sixteen impact categories were computed. Focusing on global warming potential (GWP), the functional unit impacts for roughly 6.99E+8kgCO2eq. This figure drops to 0.212E+8kgCO2eq if urban collection was not considered and further to 0.186E+8kgCO2eq if final transportation was excluded. Results underline the potential benefit of on-site treatment of waste

Energetic and economic viability of olive stone recovery as a renewable energy source: a Southern Italy case study

The recovery of olive stones for biofuel is becoming increasingly widespread in olive milling plants. In this study we look at the economic and energetic benefits of using a de-stoner machine in a small-to-medium sized oil milling plant. The performance of the olive stone recovery system was evaluated over a full olive oil production season. The energetic viability of the de-stoner was assessed using a Life Cycle Assessment approach, and the break-even point was achieved when about 56 tons of olives had been processed, which is less than the annual production of the mill in question. Similarly, in economic terms, the machine covered its costs after about a quarter of its technical life

Qualitative effects of the addition of withered grapes to a freshly produced red wine: the traditional governo all'uso toscano practice

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Performance of a driven hitch-cart for draft animal power under different power take-off torque and ballast levels condition

The performance of a two-wheel driven hitch-cart designed for draft animal power has been assessed. The cart fits a three-point linkage system and a ground-driven power take-off (PTO). Conventional pneumatic tires and metallic wheels have been tested in dedicated draft trials with increasing torque applied to PTO (7.0 to 70 Nm) at two ballast levels (100 and 200 kg). Draft force varies from a minimum of about 760 N (pneumatic tires and the lowest ballast), up to about 4480 N (metallic wheels and the highest ballast), with a linear increase as a function of the PTO applied torque. In term of global efficiency the better performances was achieved in different conditions. The metallic wheels deliver greater power to the PTO than pneumatic tires. Furthermore, they had global efficiencies higher than pneumatic for high power requirements, while the pneumatics perform better when the required power is low. Slippage rises as a function of increasing torque and decreasing ballast, with metallic wheels allowing delivery of greater PTO torque at the same slippage extent. The performances of the cart are consistent with the use of implements designed for small tractors

Strategies to improve the performances of bakery products made from ancient wheat’s

The growing consumers\u2019 attention regarding the inclusion of foods able to provide health benefits in one\u2019s diet, is currently a theme of fundamental importance. Between these products, ancient wheat\u2019s and whole wheat flours seem to be the most appealing in the cereal industry thanks to their nutritional content. Nevertheless, ancient wheat\u2019s show worse rheological and technological performances compared to modern cultivars, in particular when using whole wheat flour. According to Migliorini, et al. (2016), the content of starch and protein is strongly influenced by annual variability and agronomic practices. This highlights the need for further investigation to understand the relationship between different agronomic practices and the rheological and technological properties of flours and dough\u2019s made from ancient wheat\u2019s. Furthermore, the greatest challenge for the bakery industry still remains the improvement of the technological properties of bakery products made from ancient wheat\u2019s. In this paper, some of the strategies aimed to face this challenge are proposed. Starting from the improvement of the rheological properties of dough\u2019s made from ancient wheat, Cappelli, et al. (2018) provided a rheological study which allows to identify the optimal water content to be added, through models represented by level curves diagrams. Moreover, regarding the improvement of bakery products based on ancient wheat, the sourdough fermentation (Saa, et al. 2017) and the reduction of free lipid in the doughs (Collar & Angioloni, 2014) seems to be the most interesting strategies. Finally, future strategies finalized to improve the technological properties of bakery products made from ancient wheat\u2019s are related to the assessment of suitability and bread-making aptitude of ancient wheat flours blended with the most interesting and innovative sources of proteins, i.e. legume and insect flours

A new method for Espresso Coffee brewing: Caffè Firenze

Espresso coffee is the most popular choice for Italian coffee consumers. It has been estimated that every day, in the world, over of 50 million of Espresso cups are taken. As a consequence of this success, a large number of devices to make Espresso have been developed. In this scenario, a new device has been recently developed and patented (Eu. Patent 06 023 798.9; US 2010/0034942 A1). This brew method, named “Caffè Firenze”, uses a sealed extraction chamber, where water and gas provides pressure higher than the other extraction methods. Three main parts compose the apparatus: the gas source, the extraction chamber and the heat exchanger. The gas source provides the pressured gas required to raise the pressure of the system. The extraction chamber is made with chrome-brass and accessorized with two heating glow plugs. Many are the factors affecting Espresso quality: it is known that, coffee type, roasting conditions and degree, grinding and storage strongly affect the obtained brew. Also, several studies have been carried out on the effect of the setting parameters on quality, for example water pressure, water temperature, and brew time. Among the characteristics that determine Espresso quality, the main attribute for the visual analysis is, without doubts, the foam, also called “crema”. Indeed, height, aspect, and persistency of foam are features much appreciates by consumers. Two distinguish Espresso foam parameters are the persistency and foam index. Equipping a commercial bar machine with the new designed extraction chamber makes feasible the comparison between the traditional way to brew Espresso and the new device. The comparison was made holding the previous mentioned conditions, and differences were evaluated in terms of physical parameters and aromatic profiles. Caffè Firenze shows pronounced differences compared with traditional Espresso in term of foam-related parameters. Also, the new extraction device produces coffees with higher values of body-related parameters, such density and viscosity. The two kinds of Espressos are perceived different at visual analysis and taste by a panel test

Modelling carbon export mediated by biofouled microplastics in the Mediterranean Sea

Marine microplastics can be colonized by biofouling microbial organisms, leading to a decrease in microplastics' buoyancy. The sinking of biofouled microplastics could therefore represent a novel carbon export pathway within the ocean carbon cycle. Here, we model how microplastics are biofouled by diatoms, their consequent vertical motion due to buoyancy changes, and the interactions between particle-attached diatoms and carbon pools within the water column. We initialize our Lagrangian framework with biogeochemical data from NEMO-MEDUSA-2.0 and estimate the amount of organic carbon exported below 100 m depth starting from different surface concentrations of 1-mm microplastics. We focus on the Mediterranean Sea that is characterized by some of the world's highest microplastics concentrations and is a hotspot for biogeochemical changes induced by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Our results show that the carbon export caused by sinking biofouled microplastics is proportional to the concentration of microplastics in the sea surface layer, at least at modeled concentrations. We estimate that, while current concentrations of microplastics can modify the natural biological carbon export by < 1%, future concentrations projected under business-as-usual pollution scenarios may lead to carbon exports up to 5% larger than the baseline (1998–2012) by 2050. Areas characterized by high primary productivity, that is, the Western and Central Mediterranean, are those where microplastics-mediated carbon export results to be the highest. While highlighting the potential and quantitatively limited occurrence of this phenomenon in the Mediterranean Sea, our results call for further investigation of a microplastics-related carbon export pathway in the global ocean