BIOPLAT and SusChem-España present the Handbook on Biorefineries in Spain
It is time for the bioeconomy to raise in Spain
through the deployment of biorefineries. The country has the necessary
resources and it is well placed. This is the basic message that was repeated in
different ways by several speakers during the official presentation of the Handbook
on Biorefineries in Spain (only in Spanish) that was held on September 18th
in the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. The Spanish Biomass Technology Platform (BIOPLAT) and
the Spanish Technology platform for. Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem-España)
have elaborated this handbook with the purpose of providing knowledge about the
sector and identifying the strategic advantages of leveraging the potential of
the biorefineries in Spain.
Figure 1. A part of the Handbook front cover
The event had two blocks. In the first one, several
experts analyzed the opportunities at national level in the biorefining field (additional
information in Spanish is available on this post
of the BIOPLAT blog). In the second one, some practice cases were exposed: Natac (high-value
extracts from agrofood biomass), Algaenergy (integral valorization of microalgal biomass), WALEVA (pilot plant for the
production of levulinic acid from rice straw), ainia (from a biogas
plant towards a biorefinery) and Biopolis (fully recyclable packaging
from sugars).
Returning to the Handbook, it is an easily readable
document divided into the points that are described here below. It starts by
addressing basic concepts about biorefineries and analyzing qualitatively and
quantitatively the feedstocks available in Spain. Then, the valorization
processes to transform the aforementioned feedstocks are defined and the types
of biorefineries that could be developed in Spain are described. After this
technical part, the environmental, socioeconomic and political areas involved
in the deployment of the biorefineries in Spain are addressed. Subsequently,
the strategic position to develop the sector in Spain and the advantages that it
could bring to the country are analyzed. Finally, a non-exhaustive list of
initiatives related to the field of the biorefineries in Spain concludes the
text.
To sum up, the development of the biorefineries
provides a unique occasion for Spain to grow in a competitive and sustainable
way. Citing the words of Jesús Torrecilla (Head of technological and
environmental assets at Tecnalia Ventures) during the event, bioeconomy is a megatrend and,
as such, will create a plenty of business opportunities. Will we seize them?
Will we be able to build demo plats when we are far from market? And to skip to commercial scale? Huge challenges remain. From the Blog, I will be supporting and giving
visibility to all the emerging initiatives.
