The use of disc stack centrifuge in the virgin olive oil industry

Abstract

The disc stack centrifuge (DSC) in the virgin olive oil (VOO) industry is widely used for oil purification at a final stage of extraction process. The obtained oil should be commercialized directly as turbid or sent to settling and/or filtration. Despite technology is strongly consolidated, few literature is available on the effect of DSC on efficiency and quality of VOO, specially compared with alternative methods. Alternative technologies to DSC like settling or direct filtration are suitable only for very small production scale. Application of advanced technology already available for DSC like hermetic design is applicable also to VOO but more research is necessary to establish effect on quality and cost/benefit ratio. Improvement of installation module and a more appropriate use of DSC on VOO industry are recommended to reduce water consumption and consequent loss of VOO quality.