A new project is turning waste from Europe's olive mills into sustainable bioplastics, clean energy and plant-boosting compounds. OLinWASTE brings together nine partners from across the continent, with the University of Surrey playing a key role in optimising biorefinery operations.
As the world's largest producer of olive oil, the EU faces a significant environmental challenge in managing the vast volumes of waste generated in production. Known as olive mill waste (OMW), this includes pomace, stones and leaves. Improper disposal can lead to soil degradation, water pollution and can even damage local ecosystems.
Running for four years with almost 4 million in funding from Horizon Europe, the project will create a fully integrated, zero-emission biorefinery to convert this waste into valuable bioproducts such as bioplastics, biofertilisers, biopesticides, plant bio-immunostimulants and bioenergy. The biorefinery will use green chemistry and microbial processes to recover resources while minimising emissions, noise and odours.
The University of Surrey's contribution is to design and implement the System Digital Twin (SDT) - a virtual model of the biorefinery's waste treatment and energy flows. Researchers will input data from other parts of the project and use machine learning, validated against real-world experiments and physics-based models, to ensure accuracy.
Once built, the SDT will enable the team to simulate the biorefinery's operations and deliver continuous optimisation, making the plant more efficient, cost-effective, and reducing its carbon footprint.
Dr Lei Xing, Lecturer in Digital Chemical Engineering at the University of Surrey and Fellow of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI, said:
"The OLinWASTE project is a fantastic opportunity to help make the olive oil industry cleaner and more sustainable. Our digital twin will give the team a powerful tool to explore different scenarios, improve efficiency, and cut costs and emissions - ultimately supporting greener production across Europe."
The project held its kick-off meeting in Rome in June 2025, with the team starting work in close collaboration with an Italian olive mill that also operates a biogas plant - laying the groundwork for the fully integrated biorefinery.
Professor Vincenzo Lionetti of Sapienza University of Rome, the project coordinator, said:
"We are proud to lead a project that brings together cutting-edge science, green technology, and real-world application to make Europe's bioeconomy more circular and resilient."
The consortium spans four European universities, including Sapienza, Padua, Cranfield, Burgos, and Surrey; three research centres (Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Research Institutes of Sweden, and Rise Processum), industrial biorefinery Agrolio-Agroenergy, and the open innovation cluster CLIC Innovation Oy.
