Energy and resource efficiency of electroporation-assisted extraction as an emerging technology towards a sustainable bio-economy in the agri-food sector

The European Union is the largest producer of wine and olive oil worldwide, accounting for 65 and 75% of the global production, respectively. In 2017, Spain produced around 32.5 million hectolitres of wine (approximately 13.5% of the global production) and approximately 67% of the European olive oil (50% of the global production). In this context, the sustainability in these sectors is a matter of concern to both Spain and Europe. This study aims to evaluate electroporation-assisted extraction as an emerging technology towards a sustainable bio-economy. This technology should enhance energy and resource efficiency, food quality, and environmental performance under a life cycle approach. The pulsed electric field technique is used to improve the extraction yield of olives, and to decrease the maceration time in winemaking. Thereby, it is expected to increase productivity and processing capacity without affecting the nutritional and sensorial characteristics of the food products. The results revealed that the maceration time decreased for both studied cases (8 and 5 days) during winemaking, for which all selected environmental impact categories were reduced by 2–38%. Regarding the olive oil processing, an average improvement of 5% in the olive extraction yield reduced the environmental impact indicators approximately 5%.