02. Mar 2017

Sustainable levulinic acid becomes Bio-on’s newest challenge

Sustainable levulinic acid becomes Bio-on’s newest challenge

As a sustainable platform chemical, green levulinic acid is considered to hold huge potential for the sustainable chemical industry of the future. Now, Italian companies Bio-on and Sadam Group are jumping on the bandwagon.

mWhile levulinic acid may well be regarded as a key player in the greening of the chemical industry, the volumes produced today are insufficient to successfully fulfil this role. With market demand for levulinic acid forecast to explode in the coming years, the Italian biotechnology company Bio-on and agro-industrial Sadam Group have launched a joint project to develop innovative industrial processes to produce this - using by-products from the sugar industry as raw material. The coming three years will be devoted to building a demo plant and developing the necessary industrial processes to produce green levulinic acid at competitive cost.

Some years ago, levulinic acid was identified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the USA as an extremely promising bio-intermediate. A platform chemical, it can be used to produce other chemical substances or to replace the synthetic alternatives. The main end users of levulinic acid are the agricultural, pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors, but this natural molecule also helps create new ecological fuels, fertilisers and antiparasitic products. It is also used in the biodegradable plastics sector, expanding its field of application, and it is an intermediate element for making high-performance plastics, drugs and many other new-concept "green" products.

Based on the most recent forecasts and based on various independent research, Bio-on estimates that market demand for levulinic acid will grow 150-200-fold over the next 7-8 years. To anticipate the growing demand and exploit a competitive advantage, Bio-on and Sadam Group have launched the present project, which envisages using sugar beet co-products as the raw material. Particular attention will be paid to economic and ecological aspects: current global production of levulinic acid comes from highly polluting plants, with an unacceptable environmental impact for European standards and with vast production costs, resulting in high market prices.

"Levulinic acid is considered one of the 12 'building blocks' of the green chemical industrym of the future," explained Marco Astorri, Chairman of Bio-on S.p.A. "Working on a new method of producing levulinic acid on an industrial scale over the coming months, as we announced in 2015, fills us with pride and enables us to consolidate our global leadership in the development of modern biochemistry.”

First, a pilot plant will be built for research purposes. Subsequent project development would involve the construction of a demo plant with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes of levulinic acid per year at Sadam's Tre Casali agro-industrial plant in San Quirico (Parma). An industrial plant using proprietary technology from Bio-on will also be built where PHA biopolymers will be produced from glycerol, a co-product of bio-diesel production.

The final goal of the project will be to demonstrate the feasibility of creating a production process at competitive cost and with low environmental impact that can be replicated on a larger scale in a subsequent industrial and commercial phase.
"We are pleased with this initial development stage conducted by Bio-on, Sadam Group," says Massimo Maccaferri, Chairman of Sadam, "because this molecule is an extraordinary tool that can kick-start the re-launch of the Italian chemical industry, safeguarding employment and guaranteeing an investment in our future."

The project, entitled "Industrial eco-sustainable production of levulinic acid from sugar industry by-products not intended for human food - PROECOLEV", has been approved by MISE (Italian Ministry of Economic Development) with a 2016 ministerial decree now in effect. The project has a duration of 36 months and has an estimated budget of 6 million Euro backed by MISE from the Sustainable Growth fund, Sustainable industry tender 2015, with a blend of subsidised and non-recoverable credit. The technology developed by the Bio-on/ Sadam Group team will encourage the creation of bio-refineries in Europe capable of converting crude, natural raw materials into renewable elements with high added value, within the circular economy and green economy to be promoted in the European Union. (KL)

http://www.bio-on.it/news.php

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