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Among those on hand for the celebration were Flavio Zanonato Italy's Minister for Economic Development; Roberto Cota president of the provincial administratio) The €150 million Crescentino (Vercelli) bio-refinery is owned by Beta Renewables a Mossi Ghisolfi Group engineering company the American fund TPG (Texas Pacific Group) The project was supported by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development has a production capacity of 75 million litres a year of second generation bio-ethanol intended for the European market The facility's owners said the plant is entirely self-sufficient in terms of energy consumption (13 MW of electricity produced from lignin) and does not discharge any wastewater But the facility's environmental benefits are only part of the story They contend the bio-refinery 's most “revolutionary” feature is the technology platform it relies on to create bio-ethanol The PROESATM (PROduzione di Etanolo da biomasSA - Production of ethanol from biomass) technology combined with Cellic® enzymes produced by Novozymes makes use of sugars that are present in lignocellulosic (non-food) biomass to obtain alcohol fuel and other chemical products with low emissions of greenhouses gases at competitive costs the PROESA technology produces bio-fuels that ensure a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions close to 90% of those generated by fossil fuels substantially better that the reduction achieved by first-generation bio-fuels “Investors interested in cellulosic ethanol often ask when the technology will be ready at commercial scale,” said Guido Ghisolfi “PROESA enables customers to produce advanced bio-fuel at a cost-competitive price relative to conventional bio-fuels – at large-scale and today "Our complete offering makes cellulosic bio-fuel projects bankable and replicable With the world’s first commercial plant up and running here in northern Italy I very much look forward to an exciting journey of establishing an entirely new said he sees the opening of the plant as a reminder to the policy makers that the successful development of renewables-based projects depends on stable and predictable incentives for the collection of agricultural residues and investment support for the first large-scale plants "Continued reliance on fossil fuels is not viable,” Nielsen said "Large scale production of low cost sugars from non-food biomass is a critical enabler to accelerate the growth of bio-chemicals and bio-fuels" "We are very excited to see the technology deployed worldwide leveraging the most cost effective source of biomass specific to each region including dedicated crops and agriculture waste." The Crescentino bio-refinery is situated in a territory whose strong agricultural vocation allows to exploit an extensive variety of biomasses that are available at a low cost within a 70 km range from the plant (principally rice straw The company is also developing a dedicated production line fuelled by giant cane (Arundo Donax) without affecting the agricultural food production The PROESATM technology was developed by Biochemtex at the Rivalta Scrivia Research Centre in Alessandria which is entirely dedicated to renewable sources started a pilot plant for bio-fuel production in 2009  “The second generation bio-fuel market has high economic and occupational potential considering the know-how of our companies and the directives issued by the European “We shall continue to invest in research because we believe that sustainable chemistry is one of the key sectors for the Country's economic recovery We are making a series of preliminary assessments in some areas in Italy that might prove to be strategic for the construction of new plants." Ghisolfi went on to say the partnership is planning to open a new research centre and a demonstration plant in Modugno  to produce intermediate chemical products starting from lignin "At the same time we shall continue to export our technology in the world through commercial agreements since the demand for new generation bio-fuels is steadily expanding," he said Beta Renewables Local media are reporting that the Beta Renewables cellulosic ethanol plant in Crescentino, Italy has been shut down. The €250 million ethanol refinery has the capacity to produce 40,000 tonnes of bioethanol per year, from around 270,000 tonnes of biomass. Established in 2011, it was the world’s first commercial scale bioethanol refinery. Financial restructuring at US headquartered Group Mossi & Ghisolfi (M&G), who built and operated the facility, is behind the shutting down of the bioethanol plant. “The court of Alessandria admitted Gruppo Mossi Ghisolfi companies to the “concordato preventivo” in accordance with article 161 sixth paragraph of the Bankruptcy Law,” reads a statement issued by Beta Renewables on 27 October. “The court granted all companies a term of 120 days starting from 26 October 2017 for the filling of the proposal of the composition with creditors, with the exception of IBP srl for which the court granted a term of 60 days.” This essentially means that the Beta Renewables biorefinery has just 60 days to present a restructuring plan to Italian authorities. The 150,000m2 Crescentino biorefinery was established at the end of 2011 as a joint venture between M&G subsidiary Biochemtex and the Texas Pacific Group Fund. Late in 2012, Novozymes acquired 10% of the shares in Beta Renewables. On 31 October, M&G filed for ‘Chapter 11’ of the US Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganisation under the country’s bankruptcy laws, in the District of Delaware, for 11 companies in its portfolio. Italian major ENI has initialed agreements with a string of African governments: to collect feedstock of vegetable oil and other agricultural wastes and residue all over the continent. The ostensible purpose is to establish a wide range of feedstock sources that do not compete with food cycles, “to be transformed into bio-fuels and bio-products that might contribute to feed ENI’s bio-refineries”. In a standard throwback to centuries- long relationship between Europe and Africa, the company will gather these agricultural materials in Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya and Rwanda and process the entire stock, in Biorefineries established outside the continent. The engineering skills, the manufacturing know how, the project management capacity, which come with converting the raw into processed products, will elude Africa. As part of its “New Energy Solution” as it transits from the fossil fuel landscape, ENI wants to achieve Biorefinery capacity at over 5Million tonnes per Annum (5MMTPA) from 2030. But none of the refining will happen in Africa, where most of the raw material (feedstock) will be obtained from. Africans will gather the agricultural wastes, on the pretext that ENI is helping the continent “to regenerate abandoned and degraded lands and promoting sustainable practices, to produce crops to be used as feedstock and create value out of material” that would otherwise have been left to rot and aggravate the environmental eye sores and health hazards, but the real value add-higher level skill sets fostered by the engineering of conversion, will be determined elsewhere. It is like farming cocoa in abundance in Africa and producing chocolate in Europe all over again. But none of the African leaders who signed the deals to provide the feedstock is on record as having said anything about looking forward to developing Biorefineries in their countries. In the same month, ENI completed the phase-out of palm oil as feedstock supply for ENI’s biorefineries, with it fully replaced by sustainable raw materials from Africa. The company also launched a study to assess the economic feasibility of building and operating a biorefinery at the Livorno hub (also in Italy, several thousand kilometres from Africa), with a design capacity of 500 kilotonnes/annum. In November 2022, ENI signed several agreements with the Government of Rwanda “to promote high-quality seed production suitable for agri-feedstock, for the production of biofuel in ENI’s biorefinery”. ENI is in the process of searching for biorefinery sites all over the world, anywhere but Africa. In December 2022, Versalis acquired from DSM a technology to produce enzymes for second-generation ethanol to be employed at the Crescentino plant to integrate the proprietary Proesa® technology to deliver sustainable bioethanol and chemical products from lignocellulosic biomass. Sponsored3 comments Itai Mabaso says: May 22, 2023 at 9:33 amThis is day light robbery It makes perfect sense to have biorefineries established in Africa closer to the source of raw materials Africa is exporting the much-needed jobs and the opportunity to upskill its people and opportunity get full value (foreign currency) from its natural resource African leaders must stop being greedy for want of immediate gratification and start embracing ideals that will ultimately result in wealth creation for generations yet unborn The problem is home made and the solution has to be home made there is no blaming a foreigner who is naturally a capitalist in exercising the right to exporting wealth outside a territory where it is less valued to a region of higher values Let’s work on developing the mindset of our African brothers in appreciating investment in ideals that favour production rather than consumption mentality Send comment email us at: subscriptions@africaoilgasreport.com Phone: +2348038882629+234-803 652 5979 © 2025 Festac News Press Ltd..