9 October 2013
Details
Beta Renewables and Novozymes
today marked the official opening in Northern Italy
of the World's largest advanced biofuels facility
situated in fields outside the city of Crescentino, Italy.
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 plants uses wheat straw, rice straw and arundo donax,
a high-yielding energy crop grown on marginal land.
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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 an excess green electricity sold to the local grid.
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.
Beta Renewables,
Guido Ghisolfi, Chairman and CEO,
- 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's core technology throughout the world, and
we are very confident at this stage
given the demand we see around the world.
Novozymes,
Peder Holk Nielsen, CEO
- 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 agricutural waste into
millions of litres of low-emission green fuel, providing that
* Cellulosic Ethanol is no longer a distant dream.
* It is here,
* it is happening, and
* it is ready for large-scale commercialization.
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