The solid waste from two-phase olive oil extraction or "alperujo" was submitted to steam treatmentat high pressure or temperature, 200
C for 5 min, in the presence and absence of mild acid catalyst.This treatment made easier the separation of the solid and liquid fractions. Besides the recovery ofcertain valuable components from the liquid fraction (the antioxidant hydroxytyrosol, low molecularweight oligosaccharides, glucose, mannitol, etc.), the major components of the solid residue couldbe also exploited. In this study, changes in composition of alperujo due to steam treatment weredetermined. The process reduced appreciably the hemice
llulose concentrations (75-88%), removeda substantial portion of Klason lignin and protein (50%), and led to an extensive solubilization ofalperujo (55-67%). Ce
llulose was very resistant to autohydrolysis and acid-catalyzed hydrolysis, sothe solid residue was enriched in fat (13-18 g/100 g of dry steam-treated alperujo) and ce
llulose(15-25 g/100 g of dry and defatted steam-treated alperujo). The steam-treated material can beefficiently saccharified with commercial ce
llulase. The best hydrolysis yields were attained, up to80%, when the treated material was post-treated with NaOH. The possibility of using this steam-treated alperujo in animal feeding was evaluated by an in vitro digestibility test, using the pepsin-ce
llulase method. The treatment affected positively the nutritional characteristics of alperujo with anincrease in its in vitro (dry and organic matter) digestibility (8-10% higher than untreated material).In vitro digestibility and ce
llulose accessibility to enzymatic hydrolysis were improved by the alkalipost-treatment.