Evolution of the fatty fraction during co-composting of olive oil industry wastes with animal manure: maturity assessment of the end product

Olive mill wastewater sludge. resulting from the natural evaporation of olive oil processing effluent, was co-composted with poultry manure and changes in the lipid fraction investigated. Composting was achieved after approximately 9 months. leading to a compost with high stability and maturity (C/N ratio: 11.9: cation exchange capacity (CEC): 85.9 meq 100 g(-1) organic matter, CEC/total organic carbon: 4.2 meq g(-1); humic acids carbon/fulvic acids carbon: 2.2) useable directly in agriculture and having the same fertilizing capacity as farmyard manure.

Composting led to a reduction in the lipid fraction by at least 95%. Unsaturated fatty acids, particularly polyunsaturated acids, were the most degraded (reduction of 55%) leading to an increase in saturated fatty acids. This change was confirmed by the relative increase in the peroxide index from 5 to 32.5 meq O-2 kg(-1) fats, and a decrease in the C-18:2/C-16:0 ratio from 0.9 to 0.3. In addition, this study demonstrated that 1.2% of the humic acids component of the compost comprised fatty acids. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.