Agriresid ues for ECOMATECH

Countries with economies based on agriculture generate vast amounts of low value wastes which often represent an environmental hazard. This presentation summarises the conversion of agro industrial wastes into renewable low cost liquid substances and materials to decrease pollution, give added value to wastes and work in a sustainable manner in which the wastes of an industry can be used as the raw materials for the same or others, as the “cradle to cradle” philosophy states. Given their origin, these materials can be considered Ecomaterials.

Some applications we have developed up to date are Bio-refinery processes, i.e. preparation of sustainable p-cymene and hydrogen, avoiding the use of petroleum derivatives, synthesis of renewable pharmaceutical and fine chemical intermediates avoiding toxic substances, design of structured materials capable of effluent decontamination, preparation of biomaterials capable to act as pharmaceutical vehicles, scaffolds, etc,.,.

Given its multidisciplinary approach, this work is based on the collaboration among several research groups from Spain, Belgium and England, and several industries interested in the transformation of their residues into “value added materials”, with whom various research projects have been and are being sponsored by the MICINN and CDTI.