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In a rather unique story from Reuters, the Spanish olive oil market is profiled for what it can do to power Spain’s homes, not just its economy and kitchens.

Accounting for half the production of olive oil in the EU, growers are now getting to sell olive pits as a valuable ingredient for biofuel. Hundreds of thousands of tons of olive pits are now being consumed in Spain every year to heat homes, power oil mills, and even airplanes.

Pits make up between 8% and 10% of an olive crop by weight. During the pressing stage in the oil production process, the pits are squeezed out and separated before being washed and dried to create fuel similar to wood pellets used in certain domestic stoves, grills, and fireplaces.

In the past, cultivators didn’t have a good idea of what to do with the olive pits, says Pablo Rodero, an affiliate with the Spanish biomass association, Avebiom. Avebiom estimates that 400,000 tons of olive pits are produced every year in Spain. That’s a lot of material to not know what to do with.

“Now everything is used,” Rodero told Reuters. “Olives are like pigs: Nothing goes to waste.”

According to Reuters, the energy shock from the Russian invasion of Ukraine that caused domestic heating prices to soar led directly to a further development of the olive pit industry as a fuel product.

One-third of all pits are now refined to remove as much moisture as possible and sold for around 300 euros per ton, which equates to around 6 cents per kilowatt-hour for home heating.

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The rest is used on the farms to drive the almazaras, or traditional olive mills, or sold to power industrial boilers.

Petro company Cepsa uses olive oil pits as the key ingredient in a sustainable aviation fuel blend that powered 200 flights out of Andalusia’s capital of Sevilla airport last year. Biofuels, usually made from old cooking oil, have been pioneered as more sustainable jet fuel in China and other parts of the globe.

It might seem strange to Americans who have to pay prime dollar for olive oil imports, but some farms and farming collectives pull in as much as a third of their revenue from pit sales.

SHARE This Unlikely Fuel Source From Sunny Spain… 

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