Abstract
<jats:p>The olive industry is experiencing significant growth, held back only by the environmental and management issues that its by-products can cause. The two most polluting effluents produced are a new aqueous phase or ‘alpechín’ in the olive oil industry, and brine in the table olive ones. The high organic and phytotoxic load of both, together with the conductivity of the brines, makes their reuse difficult and poses a real technological challenge due to the environmental problems they are causing. This study demonstrates that the application of thermo-malaxation followed by three-phase centrifugation allows the removal of most of the most active phenolics, including hydroxytyrosol, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol and tyrosol—from the alperujo in a 30%, yielding a partially detoxified solid phase and a liquid phase rich in the most active phenolics. Furthermore, the application of an industrial chromatographic process enables the removal of between 50% and 75% of the phenolic load from the liquid fraction of the aforementioned system, as well as from the brines of the table olive industry. The high antioxidant activity of the extracted phenolics has also been verified through in vitro assays.</jats:p>