Award-winning Portuguese olive oil producer reveals how they handle the biggest challenges faced in the last 3-4 years
The award-winning Portuguese olive oil producer Sociedad Agricola Ouro Vegetal (SAOV) was founded in 2004 with main idea to produce high-quality olive oil for export in high volumes. Since starting in 2004, SAOV has won more than 100 prizes in international and national competitions. In 2017, SAOV produced around 2 million of litres of olive oil. The biggest challenges SAOV has faced in the last 3-4 years, have been to follow and sustain the big increase of raw material production. How do they solve these challenges?
DATE 2023-11-28Sociedad Agricola Ouro Vegetal, Portugal
The Alfa Laval Sigma 8 decanter was installed for this season, and up to now it has already processed 4000 tonnes of olives. Our first impression of the Sigma 8 was extraordinary, both in terms of yield and separation efficiency.
SAOV has been partnered with Alfa Laval since we started in 2004. Our relationship with Alfa Laval is very close and extremely good. It is familiar, based on mutual help, information sharing, companionship and reciprocal trust.
From the start, all Alfa Laval decanters we have tested have been efficient, reliable and long-lasting. In fact, they have been working for a long time, showing the long-lasting and long-term reliability of the equipment.
- Rita Marques, Food Quality Manager, SAOV
Sigma 8
- Exceptional extraction efficiency, even at high flow rates, thanks to Sigma 8’s unique conveyor and bowl designs
- Low power and water consumption
- Very low solids content in extracted oil, resulting in lower load on the subsequent clarification stage and reduced downtime for flushing of the high-speed separator
- Outstanding oil quality thanks to gentle product handling and minimal heating
- Tungsten carbide wear protection: lining of feed zone and solids outlet, tungsten carbide tiles on the conveyor flight (the entire length)
Optimizing the edible oil process
Refining crude oil into edible oil requires deep process knowledge—from degumming, neutralization and dewaxing to bleaching, deodorizing and GE and 3-MCPD mitigation.
