Innovative plant for the separation of high quality virgin olive oil (VOO) at industrial scale

摘要

Generally the virgin olive oil (VOO) requires a cleaning operation that is performed using a vertical disc stack centrifuge representing the most important source of product oxidation. Natural settling represents an alternative to the oil/water separation but it results unsuitable for modern processes due to great amount of time required to perform the operation. In the present paper are reported the results of VOO cleaning through an enhanced sedimentation plant by hydrocyclone. Treatments have been compared by physical and chemical characterisation of VOO both after 48 h from extraction and after 180 days of shelf-life.