Technical and economical evaluation of olive mills solid waste pellets

The low carbon- oriented strategy of the European Community has caused a radical progress in the exploitation of agricultural waste-derived biomass. Within the context of the food versus fuel debate, it seems that second generation biomass is gaining a lot of momentum. The aim of this study is to quantify the potential contribution of olive -oil solid waste pellets in the energy mix of an olive oil producing country - Cyprus as well as to examine its competitiveness against wood pellets. These research questions required a multidisciplinary approach, thus this work is conducted on two levels; the technical and the life cycle costing level. The technical analysis demonstrates the significant potential of olive mills solid waste in contributing in the country's energy mix, by taking into consideration both its proximate and ultimate analysis as well as its availability. The feasibility analysis presents the viability of olive mills solid waste pellets in Cyprus, and provides evidence for the olive mills solid waste pellets' competiveness over other commercially-available pellets. According to the findings of this study, pelletized olive mills solid waste pellets could enter the market with a selling price of less than 150 € tn−1 and could contribute in the households, industrial and agricultural sectors by 1114 toe, 934 toe, 835 toe, respectively.