Official opening of the pilot biorefinery of the CLaMber project in Puertollano

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By the end of 2013, the Governing Council of Castilla-La Mancha (Autonomous Community in Cental Spain) approved an agreement with the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain to allocate 20 M€ between 2014 and 2015 with the aim of laying the foundations to convert the region into the reference of Southern Europe within the field of the research in biomass exploitation. This was the starting point of the CLaMber (Castilla- La Mancha Bio-economy Region) project that is based in two main lines: a pilot biorefinery and the procurement of R&D services to encourage the applied research for regional SMEs.

A few weeks later, by early 2014, it was confirmed that the facilities of the pilot plant would be located in Puertollano. In August 2014, the tenders for the basic engineering and the works project were announced. The construction took place during 2015 and 2016. Simultaneously, several R&D projects were developed under the framework of the second line of the project. By the end of 2016, the start-up of the plant was entrusted to GEACAM (public company for the environmental management in the region) pumping 450,000 € between 2017 and 2018. After several months of uncertainty rumours about an official date, some local media have confirmed that the official opening of the facilities will be held today with the presence of the President of the Autonomous Community.

Figure 1. One of the units of the pilot biorefinery of the CLaMber project

The plant, characterized by its modularity and flexibility, is focused on the validation of new conversion bioprocesses and seeks to bridge the gap between lab and industrial scale. It is comprised by several units where different biomass feedstocks can be processed into bioproducts depending on their nature. Although it was not designed for a continuous operation, its processing capacity for a normal working time is 1 ton/day of dry biomass. It offers the following services: lease of facilities, procurement of R&D projects, participation as partner in projects with competitive funding and training in white biotechnology.

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