State of the art

The Mediterranean region is renowned for its distinctive climate, landscapes, and diverse agricultural traditions. Nevertheless, the area confronts various interconnected challenges, including water scarcity, soaring energy costs, and unsustainable agricultural practices, such as excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides, leading to soil degradation and reduced land productivity. A comprehensive and holistic approach is necessary to tackle these issues, integrating sustainable water management, renewable energy solutions, and innovative agricultural practices. The Mediterranean region can strive toward a more resilient and sustainable future by adopting such an integrated approach. Aside from water scarcity, high energy costs, and unsustainable agricultural practices, pollution stemming from food-related activities is another significant challenge in the Mediterranean region. Among the various agricultural productions in the area, the olive oil industry stands out as one of the most prominent. Unfortunately, this industry also ranks as oneof the most polluting due to the generation of olive mill wastewater (OMWW) and olive pomace or olive mill solid waste (OMSW). These by-products possess chemical compositions that make their management and disposal highly challenging. Tackling pollution associated with olive farming necessitates the implementation of a strategy that combines the use of renewable energy sources with sustainable agricultural practices.

Targets

Considering the aforementioned objective, the CYCLOLIVE project aims to carry out the following activities:

(i) Implementation in Morocco of one solar-based system (SBS) designed for converting OMSW into biochar meeting the European guidelines (EN 12915-1) for materials intended to be used in wastewater treatment and foragricultural application fulfilling the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) requirements, thus reducing the reliance on traditional energy sources while leading to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions and offering a sustainablesolution for waste management.

(ii) Implementation in Italy of a conventional thermal conversion system for producing the two aforementioned kinds of biochar.

(iii) The biochar intended for wastewater treatment will be then used to develop three constructed wetlands (CWs) optimised through solar panel aeration systems. These CWs will be strategically located in Italy, Morocco, and Tunisia, countries where OMWW is highly produced.

(iv) The biochar produced for agricultural applications will be used to implement cultivation trials. Treated OMWW will be tested to determine its viability as an organic amendment for agriculture, thereby promoting circular economy Mediterranean olive oil production chain

(v) Additionally, CYCLOLIVE will work on developing conversion systems of OMSW into water-adsorbent biopolymers (WABs), retaining water and essential nutrients around the root zone. These WABs will undergo field and/or soilless testing in Italy, Morocco, and Tunisia, using selected significant crops of economic and nutritional relevance to these countries. CYCLOLIVE also intends to provide (vi) efficient decision support tools (DSTs) for managing precise irrigation strategies using the FAO AquaCrop software, which may significantly reduce crop water requirements and enhance crop yields.

Moreover, CYCLOLIVE intends (vii) to evaluate the use of geospatial technologies (satellite images, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and proximal sensors) to calibrate, through machine learning techniques, plant and soil health models.

Finally, CYCLOLIVE will (viii) evaluate the produced materials' life cycle assessment (LCA).