Ver­sal­is: bio­mass power plant restar­ted at Cres­centino and bioeth­an­ol pro­duc­tion onstream with­in the first half of the year

The bio­mass power plant for renew­able elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion and part of the water treat­ment plant with bio­gas pro­duc­tion have already been restar­ted and activ­it­ies are ongo­ing to restart the bioeth­an­ol plant with­in the first half of 2020. The plant uses the PROESA® pro­pri­et­ary tech­no­logy, one of the most innov­at­ive in the bio­mass chem­istry sec­tor. The lay­out of the Cres­centino plants makes it pos­sible to use a sys­tem to com­pletely recycle all water and also makes the site com­pletely energy inde­pend­ent through the use of lignin as feed­stock for the power plant. The Ver­sal­is Biotech Research Centres at Rivalta Scrivia (Aless­andria) and Novara are cur­rently work­ing on fur­ther devel­op­ments in the pro­duc­tion of a com­plete range of fer­ment­at­ive renew­able products such as bio-oils for biore­finery, totally bio­de­grad­able poly­mers (poly­hy­droxyalkanoates or PHAs), inter­me­di­ates for biopoly­mers and bio­chem­ic­als, all made from second-gen­er­a­tion sug­ars pro­duced with the PROESA® tech­no­logy. They are also car­ry­ing out tri­als on devel­op­ing lignin for new mar­ket applic­a­tions. «Cres­centino is a stra­tegic site that will strengthen Ver­sal­is’ com­pet­it­ive pos­i­tion in the renew­able chem­ic­als sec­tor — said Daniele Fer­rari, CEO of Ver­sal­is (Eni) — with the aim of devel­op­ing a totally integ­rated and sus­tain­able plat­form, using only resid­ual bio­mass that does not com­pete with the food chain». Source: Eni/​Versalis, press release, 08.02.2020