BACKGROUND The valorization of organic wastes through fast pyrolysis appears to be a highly promising option for decreasing pollutants and reducing consumption of natural resources. For this purpose, three different olive pomace samples were studied to determine how olive crop location and the extraction process could influence bio‐oil product distribution. Olive pomace was selected as the feedstock due to the importance of the olive oil industry in Spain. RESULTS In this study, the conditions of fast pyrolysis were optimized using lignin as a reference, with the optimum conditions being 500 °C, 20 °C ms−1 as the heating rate and 15 s as the vapour residence time. The olive pomace results determined that not only their chemical composition, but also their fat content had a remarkable effect on product distribution obtained after fast pyrolysis. However, whereas high lignin content enhanced phenol production, cellulose decomposed to carboxylic acids. In addition, due to current global warming, the carbon dioxide (CO2) burden of the three samples was calculated using mass spectroscopy. The OPGC sample gave off the lowest amount of greenhouse gases, followed by OPMNE and OPMN. CONCLUSIONS The higher fat content in the sample enhanced carboxylic acid production. The difference in phenol production between OPMN and OPMNE could be attributed to the presence of potassium. From an environmental point of view, the use of olive pomace wastes could reduce CO2 emissions with further research and by developing experimental processes. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry

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Cogasification of olive pomace, almond shell, and petcoke was carried out by thermogravimetric analysis coupled with mass spectrometry. Binary and ternary blends were compared in terms of their reactivity, outlet-gas emissions, H2/CO ratios of effluents, and synergistic effect. Synergistic and antagonistic effects were observed with cogasification of blends, but that depended on the ratios of raw materials in the feed. In this regard, the higher the biomass content, the greater the weight loss, the higher the decomposition rate and, thus, the higher the gasification reactivity. Moreover, the synergistic effect on the gasification of the raw materials did not show a clear trend in gas emissions. In general, the higher the biomass content, the greater the H2 and CO2 yields, and the less CO was released. On comparing binary and ternary blends, it was seen that the former presented better results in most parameters studied.

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The catalytic effect of mineral components (K, Ca, Mg and Na), after pre‐treatment by water leaching and adding NaCl, was evaluated in fast pyrolysis with the biomass of four types of agricultural waste (olive pomace, nutshell, almond shell, and pistachio shell). Water leaching proved to be effective at reducing mineral content in the raw materials, especially in terms of removing K. As a consequence, there was lower decarboxylation activity during fast pyrolysis, and a lower yield of phenolic compounds was obtained. The effect of adding NaCl was evaluated by varying its ratio in the blend (1, 3 and 5 wt%) and it promoted cracking and dehydration reactions, favoring the formation of light molecular‐weight compounds as carboxylic acids. © 2021 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.