Olive mill sludge treatment was performed using a parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) to supply thermal energy. The proposed prototype, composed of a drying chamber coupled with a heat exchanger and a PTC, allows the treatment of up to 80 kg of wet olive oil pomace in about 1 hour and 40 min, the equivalent of 112 tons during the post-production period of olive oil. Due to the presence of oil, which delays evaporation, the drying process was studied at relatively high temperatures between 120 and 140 °C. The obtained results show that the effective diffusivities varied from 2.59 10⁻⁷ to 1.36 10⁻⁶ m²/s with an activation energy of 27.9 kJ/mol. The sludge dryer performance has also been analyzed and optimized numerically with MATLAB software. The indirect solar dryer using a PTC showed a relevant level of stability, fewer temperature fluctuations, and better control of the drying parameters compared to the direct solar dryer. The overall analysis reveals that the maximum thermal efficiency of 43% was recorded with total thermal energy produced throughout the year of 23,909 kWh, while the Levelized cost of heat was 0.34 $/kWh_th. The proposed system leads to the avoidance of about 15,900 kg of CO2 emissions.

橄榄磨污泥处理使用抛物槽式太阳能集热器 (PTC) 提供热能。拟议的原型由干燥室、热交换器和 PTC 组成，可在约 1 小时 40 分钟内处理多达 80 公斤的湿橄榄油果渣，相当于后期生产期间的 112 吨橄榄油。由于油的存在会延迟蒸发，因此在 120 到 140 °C 之间的相对较高的温度下研究了干燥过程。所得结果表明，有效扩散系数从 2.59 10 ^-7到 1.36 10 ^-6m²/s，活化能为 27.9 kJ/mol。污泥干燥机的性能也已经用MATLAB软件进行了数值分析和优化。与直接太阳能干燥器相比，使用 PTC 的间接太阳能干燥器显示出相关的稳定性、更少的温度波动和更好的干燥参数控制。总体的分析显示，43％的最高热效率记录在整个的23909千瓦时年生产总的热能，而热的平准化成本为$ 0.34 /千瓦时_次。拟议的系统可避免约 15,900 公斤的二氧化碳排放。