Beta Renewables and Novozymes open world's first advanced biofuels facility in Italy

Beta Renewables, a major player in cellulosic biofuels and part of the Mossi Ghisolfi Group, and Novozymes, one of the world’s leading producer of industrial enzymes, have opened the world’s largest advanced biofuels facility in Northern Italy. Situated in fields outside the city of Crescentino, it is the first plant in the world to be designed and built to produce bioethanol from agricultural residues and energy crops at commercial scale using enzymatic conversion.
 
“The advanced biofuels market presents transformational economic, environmental and social opportunities, and with the opening, we pave the way for a green revolution in the chemical sector. We will continue to commercially expand Beta Renewables’ core technology throughout the world, and we are very confident at this stage given the demand we see around the globe,” informed Guido Ghisolfi, Chairman and CEO, Beta Renewables.
 
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Peder Holk Nielsen, CEO, Novozymes, commented, “The opening today presents a leap forward and is truly the beginning of a new era for advanced biofuels. Here, at this plant, enabled by Novozymes’ enzymatic technology, we will turn agricultural waste into millions of liters of low-emission green fuel, proving that cellulosic ethanol is no longer a distant dream. It is here, it is happening, and it is ready for large-scale commercialisation.”
 
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The two companies formed a strategic partnership in October 2012, making Novozymes the preferred enzyme supplier for Beta Renewables’ current and future cellulosic biofuel projects. The plant uses wheat straw, rice straw and arundo donax, a high-yielding energy crop grown on marginal land. Lignin, a polymer extracted from biomass during the ethanol production process, is used at an attached power plant, which generates enough power to meet the facility’s energy needs, with any excess green electricity sold to the local grid.