Novara - The weight of bioeconomy in Europe, according to EU of the Third European Conference on Bio , worth about 2 trillion of € 22 million and employs approximately workers, in fields ranging from agriculture to the chemical industry to switch from bio fuels. The EU Commission plans to launch in autumn 2011, a communication strategy to promote and delinerà encourage the bio-economy in the Union.
One of the leading companies of this 'new' economy is Italian.
Energy from Mother Earth: fuel from rapeseed, sunflower shopping bags from , antifreeze from beets, corn tires, absorbent feminine potatoes and so on. Other predictions that science fiction. It 's a reality that now anyone can touch, thanks to the research, trials and production of Novamont Spa of Novara, a leading international manufacturer of biodegradable materials with low environmental impact . It 'kind in Italy, in fact, unique on the planet Earth is the first biorefinery going to integrate the upstream sector of bioplastics . E 'was made in Terni, in Umbria, an area of \u200b\u200b30 thousand square meters .
Here's how it works.
do without oil in the production process. " Agricultural raw materials used, widely available as starch, protein, cellulose, vegetable oils and agricultural waste " explains the director Leonardo Fasanini " represent a virtually inexhaustible source as renewable and offer more reassuring guarantees for our ecosystem . The goal is to reduce economic dependence on crude focusing on natural sources. The
bioplastics, while maintaining the advantages and characteristics of traditional materials, energy-saving , help reduce greenhouse , turn at the end of its life cycle, in fertile humus .
"Today we produce family of biodegradable plastics developed based on proprietary technologies in the field of starch, cellulose, vegetable oils and their combinations . Word of Bastioli , chemist of international renown, as well as CEO Novamont, awarded the 'European Inventor of the Year' in 2007. " These bioplastics are marketed under the brand names Mater-Bi (biodegradable) and Origo-Bi and are the first results of the project Living Chemistry for Quality of Life .
plant is already working cornstarch (non GM), which, thanks to a series of patents developed over the last ten years, get to replicate the behavior of traditional plastics or other pollutants in many different uses. "This is plastic that comes from the earth, and that the end of his employment, return to the same land "explains Bastioli.
If the corn is in fact the raw material used to produce Mater-Bi, it is not intended to be a rejection, but to be completely biodegradable in compost or reduced. Without releasing any pollutant. To get the Mater-Bi Novamont engineers have developed specific molecular structure of corn starch through the aggregation of substances capable of making it stable and to ensure water resistance. A process can significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and consumption of non-renewable energy. To achieve this, the factory (which has 800 stores scattered throughout the globe and is present in Germany, France , Benelux, Scandinavia , Denmark , United States, China , Japan, Australia and New Zealand ) has invested 100 million € . The plant is at the heart of Umbria other work born from an ambitious project: use oil sunflower (as well as rapeseed or castor oil) produced by farmers in the area, thanks to a special agreement with the direction of the narrow Coldiretti , to synthesize polyester plant . The process developed will enable the launch of new products in soft impact on nature, from ice cream to paper laminates for food wrappers. Hence the choice of directly involve farmers in setting up a joint company with 600 local farmers that achieves the milestone of 60 000 tonnes of bioplastics produced annually.
Let the numbers
The shopping bags. Annual production: 12 billion France, Italy 15 billion, equivalent to more than 300 000 tons of plastic, ie 430 000 tonnes of oil and 200 thousand tons of carbon dioxide U.S. 100 billion, 120 million Ireland, South Africa 0, banned in 2003. The Italians spend annually around 700 million euro to take home their spending . Time of use of shopper: 20 minutes. Life time in the environment: 400 years . If you
for allocating 800 thousand hectares of land for growing corn and oil for energy , with systems designed by Novamont could produce 2 million tons of Mater-Bi, equal to one quarter of ' entire national demand. A key role
is covered by scientific researchers. No coincidence that Novamont-received recognition by ecological ' UNEP (UN Environmental Programme) - spends each year on 10 per cent of its turnover technological innovation and is already in structure of 57 young engineers, physicists and chemists.
" The development of these technologies can make a substantial cut in the amount of oil that burns Italy without even realizing it," notes Bastioli, "Just make two calculations for a single, tiny example. In Italy each year consumes about 300 000 tonnes of plastic bags only for traditional of all kinds, increasingly imported from China, " replace them entirely with biodegradable products , estimates Bastioli" would mean saving about 200 000 tonnes of oil a year , while taking account of consumption needed to grow sunflowers, on the one hand, and transform the raw plastic, other .
What other effects could be positive? The reduced pollution ( 400 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in less ). To cultivate sunflowers it would take to produce the entire quantity of bags circulating in Italy, would be sufficient 200 000 hectares of land , just a fifth of owners leave fields fallow for cash incentives to the European quota of agricultural production. A first for Europe and for the whole world chemical engineering. But a new way of understanding economic growth : if, in fact, the technology involved in air Terni is a genuine scientific heritage for industrial production (the company has already filed 80 patents), the philosophy of production is art. The use of Mater-Bi to build a huge tires should risparmio di risorse energetiche.
Anche le grandi case produttrici se ne sono accorte: dal 2005 tutta la gamma di pneumatici commercializzati da Goodyear in Giappone è realizzata con le tecnologie ideate a Novara . Questa esperienza è un passo avanti. “ Un nuovo modo di intendere economia, territorio e ambiente ”, sottolinea Catia Bastioli, “ capace di affrontare le grandi sfide come l’aumento del prezzo e la scarsità dei tradizionali combustibili fossili, la valorizzazione dell’agricoltura e la perdita di competitività del sistema produttivo occidentale di fronte alla crescita dei paesi asiatici ”.
The research is reflected in the numbers and philosophy: 120 employees (of which 30 per cent used in the laboratory), ended 2010 with a turnover of 40 million € the 50 percent which sales abroad, more than 10 percent reinvested in research and development, staff training and . He has no doubt
Franco Pasquali, Secretary General of Coldiretti: "Italy has chosen environmentally friendly agriculture and without genetically modified organisms has great resources to offer, and enhancing crops dedicated to the production di biocarburanti , utilizzando residui agricoli, forestali e dell’allevamento e installando pannelli solari nelle aziende agricole è possibile arrivare a coprire entro il 2012 fino al 15 per cento del fabbisogno energetico nazionale, risparmiare oltre 12 milioni di tonnellate di petrolio equivalenti a ridurre le emissioni di anidride carbonica di origine fossile di 30 milioni di tonnellate ”.
In sostanza quali saranno i vantaggi ecologici ed economici? Consumare meno petrolio, inquinare meno, dare un futuro all’agricoltura, sviluppare nuove tecnologie, risparmiare sui costi della raccolta rifiuti, liberare mari, laghi e fiumi dai sacchetti che fanno strage di esseri living, as those made with corn dissolve in a matter of days.
Gianni Lannes
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