Clarificación de los aceites de oliva vírgenes y su efecto en las características físico-químicas y sensoriales

Resum

The aim of this PhD Thesis has been the study of the clarification step of the virgin olive oils elaboration process by two technologies, natural settling (in static and dynamic conditions) and vertical centrifugation with minimal water addition. In this sense, preliminary works were developed at laboratory scale on the thermal and physic properties of the olive oils. Besides, it has established a simulation model of the oil settling process in column by ‘computational fluid dynamics’. At industrial level, vertical centrifugation with minimal water addition has been a clarification system very efficient, that allows to obtain virgin olive oils with better quality. However, natural settling, for both conditions, was a clarification system inefficient, which affected to the virgin olive oils quality.