The possible applications of olive pomace: a study reveals the most sustainable option

University of Córdoba

The extraction of olive pomace oil is cited as the most sustainable alternative for the recovery of the olive oil industry’s byproducts, according to a methodology developed by the UCO that considers economic, environmental and social indicators.

The olive oil industry is a good example of how to tackle the challenges of sustainability in the agri-food sector. Each olive campaign generates tons of alperujo, the main byproduct of the extraction of olive oil, a derivative that must be managed. For decades, mills have been on the circular economy path, establishing different ways of exploiting olive pomace that go beyond just avoiding pollution.

The three main alternatives for the recovery of this byproduct employed by mills today at the industrial level are: the extraction of olive pomace oil, which is used for cooking, mainly in the hospitality industry, and which, in turn generates, a byproduct, pomace, used to produce energy; composting, which produces organic fertilizer; and gasification, a technology that allows for the production of renewable energy and biochar, a material useful to improve soil quality and retain carbon. Which of the three options is the most sustainable? That is the question that researchers David Polonio, Rubén Granado, José A. Gómez-Limón and Anastasio J. Villanueva, members of the WEARE research group at the University of Córdoba, are trying to answer.

The analysis is not limited to the environmental aspect, as one of the main contributions of this work is a methodology that jointly evaluates the environmental, economic and social effects of each alternative, “thus answering the sector's question about which is the most sustainable technology that can be chosen at a mill to implement it,” said Gómez-Limón.

“The methodology we have developed includes life cycle analysis to evaluate the environmental aspect; economic indicators related to the necessary investment, economic risk, and the profitability of each alternative; and indicators showing the social importance of each one, associated with the generation of employment, its quality and seasonality,” explained David Polonio. It is important, Anastasio Villanueva pointed out: “to introduce uncertainty: through statistical techniques, the probability of changes in the electricity market is introduced, for example, which affects the profitability of one or the other option depending on the campaign.”

Applying this three-pronged methodology, a composite indicator of global sustainability is produced. Using this methodology, the most sustainable option currently is the extraction of olive pomace oil, which is also the most widely implemented in the sector. For mills, this alternative is the most attractive from an economic point of view, as it does not require investment, and entails fewer risks. However, when other factors of environmental and social interest are taken into account, such as reduced emissions, or the creation of higher-quality jobs, alternatives such as gasification offer clear advantages, closely following extraction in the global calculation. Composting, the third in this ranking, stands out for its contribution to rural employment and its benefits for agricultural soil, although its economic profitability is currently more limited.

One of the conclusions, according to Gómez-Limón, “is that the sector has been doing well for a long time because the most sustainable method is the one most widely implemented today.”

It’s not an either-or question

Another conclusion is that the overall differences between the alternatives are not very great. This means that small changes (in energy prices, in the demand for organic fertilizers, or in public policies, for example) can tip the scales towards more beneficial options for society as a whole. The particular situation of each mill must also be taken into account: those that are far away from the pomace extraction plants must assume significant transport costs, so the option of gasification is more profitable.

As the work shows, the alternatives with the greatest environmental and social benefits are not always the most profitable for private companies. Therefore, the authors point to the importance of designing public policies that incentivize the most environmentally and employment-friendly options, whether through investment aid, financial instruments, or mechanisms that recognize the social and environmental value generated.

Reference:

Polonio, D., R. Granado-Díaz, J. A. Gómez-Limón, and A. J. Villanueva. 2025. Sustainability Assessment of Circular Strategies in the Agri-Food Industry: The Case of Olive Mills' By-Product Valorization. Business Strategy and the Environment 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.70371.

 

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Journal

Business Strategy and the Environment

DOI

10.1002/bse.70371 

Method of Research

Literature review

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Sustainability Assessment of Circular Strategies in the Agri-Food Industry: The Case of Olive Mills' By-Product Valorization

 

Missing pieces added to ancient global fish puzzle

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Flinders University

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image: 

Illustration of Paleolopus - a lungfish that swam in the South Chinese seas 410 million years ago courtesy Brian Choo (Flinders University)

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Credit: B Choo (Flinders University)

New pieces have been added to the puzzle of the evolution of some of the oldest fish that lived on Earth more than 400 million years ago.

In two separate studies, experts in Australia and China have found new clues about primitive lungfishes, the closest living relatives of land vertebrates.

The new research builds on long-running work by Flinders University and other palaeontologists in the fossil-rich Gogo site in Western Australia's far north, and with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The study of living and fossil lungfish provides anatomical clues into the evolutionary development of tetrapods, backboned animals with limbs including humans, that first left the water to live on land. 

The mysterious fossil from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation in WA has been further analysed using the latest technologies including CT scanning and computed tomography, with the results published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology.

Lead author Dr Alice Clement, from Flinders University's Palaeontology Lab, says new research is slowly adding to the story of the key Australian fossil site's rich diversity of lungfishes – including re-examining poorly preserved specimens.

One such damaged specimen has yielded valuable new clues. It comes from Australia's first 'Great Barrier Reef,' the Devonian-age reef in the Kimberley region of northern WA.

"The unusual specimen was so enigmatic, the authors who first described it in 2010 considered it could be a whole new type of fish never before seen in science," explains Dr Clement, from the College of Science and Engineering. 

"Using high-tech scanning, this time we were able to create comprehensive new digital images of the external and internal cranium, showcasing the complexity of the brain cavity of this fascinating lungfish," she says.

"In fact, we were also able to confirm that previous impressions were probably viewed upside down and back to front."

Coauthor Hannah Thiele, with support from multiple museums and facilities such as Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), was able to use the advanced technologies to put a new lens on this most enigmatic specimen.

"We were able to compare its most preserved inner ear area with other Gogo lungfish.  This is an extra data point in the amazing collection of lungfish and early vertebrate species," she says.

"It adds to the wider understanding of the evolution of these earliest lobe-finned fishes, both in Gondwana and across the world."

Meanwhile in the journal Current Biology, another reconstruction of an early fish skull has described a species called Paleolopus - a lungfish that swam in the South Chinese seas 410 million years ago.

Flinders researcher Dr Brian Choo and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, have called the new fossil, Paleolophus yunnanensis ('Old crest from Yunnan').  

"Paleolophus gives us an unprecedented look at a lungfish from a time between their earliest appearance and their great diversification a few million years later,” says Dr Choo, from the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University.

"It was a time when the group was just starting to develop the distinctive feeding adaptations that would serve them for the remainder of the Devonian and onwards to the present day."

Lungfish are an incredibly ancient lineage, he says, “including the still living Australian lungfish from Queenland, that have long fascinated researchers due to their close relationship to the tetrapods, or backboned animals with limbs, including humans".

"The exceptional lungfish skull unearthed in 410 million-year-old rocks in Yunnan gives us major insights into the rapid evolutionary diversification between the early-, mid- and late Devonian.”

Dr Choo adds that the new specimen had similar and divergent features compared to the earliest and most primitive Diabolepis fossil in southern China, and species such as Uranolophus from Wyoming in the US and other forms like Australia's Dipnorhynchus.

The new article, ‘A new fossil fish sheds light on the rapid evolution of early lungfishes’ (2025), by Tuo Qiao, Xindong Cui, Wenjin Zhao, Chengxi Lu, Maokun Li, Jing Lu, Brian Choo and Min Zhu has been published in Current Biology (CellPress) DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.032.

The article, 'Deciphering Cainocara enigma from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Australia' (2025) by Hannah S Thiele, John A Long, 

Joseph J Bevitt (Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, ANSTO) and Alice M Clement has been published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology (Canadian Science Publishing) DOI: 10.1139/cjz-2025-0109.

Acknowledgements: The China study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (92255301 and 42302005) and the Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP 220100825).
The Gogo study was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC DP 220100825). Researchers acknowledge the Gooniyandi community and country for access to their land, fossils and knowledge. 

3D print of Chirodipterus australis skull, a lungfish from the Gogo Formation, which shares close similarities to Cainocara enigma.

Credit

Flinders University

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Journal

Canadian Journal of Zoology

DOI

10.1139/cjz-2025-0109 

Method of Research

Imaging analysis

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Deciphering Cainocara enigma from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Australia

Article Publication Date

28-Jan-2026

 

Mediterranean pine needle loss analyzed for more efficient forest management

A study combines climate, field and remote sensing data to identify growth patterns associated with defoliation processes and mortality in artificial pine forests

University of Córdoba

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Reforested areas in the Baza (Granada) and Los Filabres (Almería) mountain ranges have experienced severe die-offs in recent years, with extensive woodland loss. Needle or leaf loss (defoliation) is one of the best indicators of tree health, particularly in pine forests under stress. When trees lose their needles, or leaves, their photosynthetic capacity deteriorates significantly, reducing growth and often leading to mortality.

Identifying the causes of defoliation processes is crucial to adopting the appropriate forestry measures to retard these forests' decline. A study by the ERSAF group at the University of Cordoba, carried out by María Ángeles Varo Martínez and Rafael María Navarro Cerrillo, has focused on analyzing time series of LiDAR (Teleported Aerial Laser) data from the National Aerial Orthophotography Plan (National Geographic Institute) to evaluate the defoliation processes in the Baza-Filabres complex, an area much affected by droughts. The LiDAR data collected over the last 10 years, supplemented by field observations and climate data, have made it possible to verify the relationship between defoliation and early growth loss, allowing us to accurately map tree deterioration processes.

Furthermore, these data, and their mapping, allow us to study the drivers of these processes, which are related to tree density (competition) and climatic factors, mainly temperature. In fact, looking at the temperature anomalies in the period studied, the team found that the existence of a summer with abnormally high temperatures subsequently led to an increase in defoliation.

The results obtained ― both the growth mapping and the identification of early drivers of defoliation ― make it possible to plan forestry to mitigate or attenuate this damage. As Varo Martínez explained: “these pine forests originate from plantations introduced between the 1950s and 1980s, which, in many cases, have not been subject to silvicultural interventions, which increases the risk of fires, as well as mortality linked to climatic factors (such as severe droughts) or biotic ones (such as pests and diseases). Poorly managed pine forests are denser, which means a greater likelihood of defoliation processes occurring.”

The research team argues that forest management policies should focus on regulating tree density through thinning programs based on defoliation and mortality risk, while promoting structural and species diversity in reforested pine forests. “It would be advisable to implement silvicultural treatments that open up the canopy to promote balanced growth of the forest stand, optimizing the growth of remaining trees and encouraging more diverse vertical and horizontal structure,” explained Martínez.

The key: a laser from an airplane

The study's most innovative aspect is its use of time series from LiDAR data. These aerial LiDAR systems, deployed nationally through the PNOA-IGN, offer nationwide coverage and enable researchers to generate high-precision 3D maps of forest structure and measure vegetation characteristics such as height, canopy coverage, and growth changes, thereby providing valuable insights into forest decline processes.

Reference

María Ángeles Varo-Martínez, Rafael M Navarro-Cerrillo, “Understanding defoliation of Pinus plantations in the Mediterranean mountains using tree segmentation and ALS time series,” Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 395, 2025, 127837, ISSN 0301-4797, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127837.

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Journal

Journal of Environmental Management

DOI

10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.127837 

Article Title

Understanding defoliation of Pinus plantations in the Mediterranean mountains using tree segmentation and ALS time series

 

Education matters more than income to reduce premature adult mortality in India

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

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IIASA researchers explored why mortality among adults of working age remains high in India alongside rapid economic growth, finding that education – at both individual and community levels – is more strongly associated with lower premature mortality than income or household wealth.

Preventing premature death is a key objective of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Economic growth is often expected to improve survival by increasing resources for social protection, public health, and healthcare systems. While India has experienced sustained economic growth, the country accounts for around one fifth of global deaths among adults of working age, and about half of all deaths in India occur before the age of 60, amounting to around three million premature deaths each year. This places India well above the global average, with important consequences for households and the wider economy.

Using nationally representative data from the India Human Development Survey, which follows individuals over time, the IIASA-led study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) examined the relative importance of education and economic resources for mortality among adults of working age (15–59) in India.

The analysis follows more than 115,000 individuals surveyed in 2004–05 and tracked through 2011–12. The authors compared how educational attainment and household economic status are related to the risk of dying during working ages, distinguishing between individual- and community-level effects. The models account for health status, age, marital status, caste, religion, health-related behaviors, employment, place of residence, and region.

The results show that adults with higher levels of education are less likely to die prematurely across all household wealth groups. In contrast, higher household wealth does not show a similarly consistent relationship with mortality once education is taken into account. For both men and women, differences in mortality by education level are larger than those observed by wealth level.

“Education shows a stronger association with survival at working ages than household wealth,” explains lead author Moradhvaj Dhakad, a guest research scholar in the Multidimensional Demographic Modeling Research Group of the IIASA Population and Just Societies Program and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Germany. “This relationship remains after accounting for health conditions, employment, and other background characteristics.”

The study also highlights the role of community context. Adults living in communities with higher average levels of education tend to have lower mortality risks, even after accounting for their own education and economic status, a pattern that is particularly evident among women. By contrast, higher average community wealth does not show a consistent protective relationship with mortality among adults of working age and, in some cases, especially among men, is associated with higher mortality risks.

“Our results show that education matters not only for individuals, but also for the communities they live in. Even after accounting for personal education and economic status, adults in more highly educated communities face lower mortality risks, especially women. This suggests that education shapes social and behavioral environments in ways that influence health beyond individual circumstances,” notes coauthor Erich Striessnig, a senior research scholar in the same research group at IIASA.

To better understand these differences, the researchers examined several possible pathways, including health behaviors, morbidity, occupation, caste, religion, and marital status. The findings show that most of the link between education and mortality at working ages is direct, while the association between household wealth and mortality operates mainly through intermediary factors, including morbidity.

“These patterns suggest that sustained reductions in premature adult mortality in India are unlikely to be achieved through income growth alone but are more strongly associated with long-term investments in education that strengthen individual capabilities and healthier community environments,” says coauthor Samir K.C., a senior research scholar at IIASA. “While growth expands resources and opportunities, it may however also introduce occupational, environmental, and behavioral risks that undermine adult health when not accompanied by investments in education, regulation, and social protection.”

“By showing that education consistently outweighs household wealth as a predictor of survival, not only for children – as has been shown repeatedly in the past – but also for working age populations, the study highlights a clear policy lever for jointly accelerating progress toward the health- and the education-related targets of the SDGs. Expanding access to quality education across the life course, particularly for women and disadvantaged groups, can deliver broad health dividends, saving lives today while building a more resilient and productive society for generations to come,” concludes IIASA Distinguished Emeritus Research Scholar and coauthor Wolfgang Lutz.

Reference
Dhakad, M., Striessnig, E., Saikia, N., KC, S., Lutz, W. (2026). For reducing premature adult mortality in India education matters more than income. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2503809123

The publication fee for this paper will be covered through external funding from the Yidan Prize–supported project (Yidan Prize 25121), which supports research highlighting the role of education in advancing human capital, health, and sustainable development.

 

About IIASA:
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policymakers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by prestigious research funding agencies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. www.iiasa.ac.at

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2503809123 

Article Title

For reducing premature adult mortality in India, education matters more than income

Article Publication Date

2-Feb-2026