CTAEX Technological Centre Information

CTAEX is a private non-for-profit R&D centre located in the region of Extremadura, south-west of Spain. Backed by an association of SMEs, large companies and co-operatives from the agro-food sector, the activities of CTAEX began in 2001, aiming at improving the competitiveness of the European agro-food sector from a market-oriented approach. CTAEX activities are shared within its 4 technical departments: The Agricultural Department has at its disposal green houses and 23 hectares of experimental farms (“ECO” certified among them) indicated for pot trials and large scale cultivation. CTAEX´s Food Technology Department is equipped with both: facilities and machinery, that make it possible to cover a great variety of industrial food products manufacturing processes at pilot scale. The Engineering Department provides consultancy with regards to the machinery involved in agro-food products manufacturing processes, including optimization of specific stages through the design and implementation of key equipment modifications. This Dept. also covers the environmental assessment of industrial processes, with special relevance to the management and energetic valorisation of the residues and by-products. Whereas CTAEX´s Analytical Department main expertise lies in the extraction, isolation, and purification of chemically interesting compounds found in vegetable raw materials, aromatic and medicinal plants and industrial agro-food residues and by-products. Besides, CTAEX´s Technology Transfer Office participates in project´s results diffusion and dissemination activities via: workshops, press releases, media appearances (http://www.youtube.com/user/otrictaex), scientific publications and CTAEX´s webpage and weekly newsletter. Means of dissemination that mostly reach SMEs and stakeholders in the agro-food sector.