Part of a stress-induced multi-chaperone system, it is involved in the recovery of the cell from heat-induced damage, in cooperation with DnaK, DnaJ and GrpE. Acts before DnaK, in the processing of protein aggregates. Protein binding stimulates the ATPase activity; ATP hydrolysis unfolds the denatured protein aggregates, which probably helps expose new hydrophobic binding sites on the surface of ClpB-bound aggregates, contributing to the solubilization and refolding of denatured protein aggregates by DnaK 