A demonstration R&D Biorefinery - CLAMBER

Castilla-La Mancha is a large Spanish region where the agri-food sector is very important and generates a great amount of waste biomass. A lack of knowledge related to biomass valorization and of facilities which carry out that valorization was detected by the Regional Government, so it developed the "Castilla-La Mancha Bio-Economy Region" (CLAMBER) project through the Regional Institute of Agri-Food and Forest Research and Development between 2013 and 2015. To address this lack, 2 actions were developed: an acquisition of knowledge through Pre-commercial Public Procurement for the carrying out of R&D projects with the aim of valorizing waste biomass generated; and the construction of a biorefinery on a demonstration scale: The CLAMBER R&D Biorefinery.
It is the first technologically advanced biorefinery at a demonstration scale in Spain, designed and built so that those companies or organizations that have developed at laboratory scale a new bioprocess for the valorization of biodegradable wet biomass or lignocellulosic biomass can perform scale-up experiments at a size very close to industrial to determine their technical and economic viability, as well as optimizing the operating parameters for the subsequent design and construction of the industrial plant. In short, the costs necessary to develop an idea industrially are greatly minimized. Moreover, management of the waste biomass through valorization makes the agri-food company processes more profitable.