Beta Renewables CEO Guido Ghisolfi dies in apparent suicide
The charismatic Beta Renewables CEO is gone, builder of the world’s first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant.
Guido Ghisolfi, 58, the CEO of Beta Renewables, is dead.
News reports from Italy indicate a suicide, after the charismatic business leader was found in his dark-color, late model Lexus, on a road side near Carbona Scrivia, less than three miles from his company’s facility in Tortona, dead of a gunshot wound at close-range. Italian media reports say that “there is no doubt that this is suicide.”
Over the days and weeks ahead, details may emerge that would explain the events. Guido Ghisolfi himself left no note.
In a statement, Grupo Mossi Ghisolfi said, “He was suffering from severe depression and yesterday this resulted in his untimely passing close to his home in Tortona, Northern Italy. The family and the Mossi & Ghisolfi Group management wish to express their immense and deep regret. Guido Ghisolfi was a rare Italian entrepreneur with great skills, perseverance and intuition. He was able – together with his father Vittorio and his brother Marco – to lead the Group to become a global organization. The Mossi & Ghisolfi Group today is one of the global leaders in the field of plastics and in the field of chemicals derived from renewable sources, in the last of which, in particular, Guido Ghisolfi showed outstanding inspiration, courage and dedication.”
The company he built
The first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, the Beta Renewables plant in Crescentino, Italy
Beta Renewables — a subsidiary of Chemtex, and Grupo M&G — had developed and deployed a low-cost cellulosic biofuels technology, known as PROESA. Chemtex employs approximately 1000 staff located in key centers throughout the world – Tortona and Rivalta in Italy, Wilmington, NC and Sharon Center, OH in the USA, Shanghai and Beijing in China and Mumbai, Bangalore and Baroda in India.
Novozymes is a major investor in Beta Renewables, and Novozymes executive vice-president Thomas Videbæk added, “We are deeply saddened by the tragic news of Guido Ghisolfi’s passing and our heartfelt condolences go to his family and close ones. We at Novozymes have lost a dear and inspiring business partner. Italy has lost a true pioneer.”
Ghisolfi was also vice-president of Italy’s second-largest chemical firm, Grupo M&G, which is presently the world’s largest producer of PET for packaging applications with 1.7 million ton of capacity annually. M&G is also a technological leader in the polyester market. Group sales proceeds in 2008 were almost $2.6B. The group has manufacturing assets in Brazil, Italy, Mexico and USA and supports three R&D facilities in Rivalta, Italy; Sharon Center, Ohio; and in Poços de Caldas, Brazil.
Beta Renewables on a roll
Guido Ghisolfi (left) with Digest editor Jim Lane, at Crenscentino, Italy.
The company he leaves behind has been on a roll.
Reportedly, the company was within weeks of closing the financing on a commercial-scale facility planned for North Carolina. The project had attracted a $99 million conditional loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture under its 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program. The project has also received support in the form of BCAP monies to support local landowners and farmers with the establishment costs for selected perennial grasses.
Last November, Brooke Renewables and Hock Lee Group presented a Letter of Intent to the Sarawak State Government marking their intention to invest in the 2G Bioethanol and Bio chemical plant as the first phase of the $1B, 5-year Sarawak Biomass Hub project.
In October, Biochemtex and Beta Renewables announced an agreement with Energochemica SE for the construction of a 16.5 million gallon (55,000 ton per year) cellulosic ethanol plant. The project is commencing immediately and the start-up of the plant is anticipated for the first half of 2017.
In September, GranBio initiated production at the first commercial-scale plant for second-generation ethanol in the Southern Hemisphere. The 82 million liter Bioflex 1 unit uses the PROESA pre-treatment technology.
In July, M&G Chemicals announced that its wholly owned subsidiary M&G International S.à.r.l had entered into a Sino-foreign joint venture with Anhui Guozhen CO, Ltd.
Relaxed and upbeat
Ghisolfi had been relaxed and upbeat in his final interview with The Digest in September 2014, in Crescentino, Italy where he and his company had built a first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, and he toured Digest editor Jim Lane around in the Lexus in which his life ended. During the interview, he put down his coffee and leaped to a whiteboard to begin to explain the math of cellulosic economics with a professorial air.
“The next decision — and it changes the rest of the life of the plant, forever, is the decision to have pressure or no pressure in the process. Pressure costs. But you have to have something with which you are attacking the biomass in the pretreatment. So, you generally have pressure, or you are adding chemicals. And that’s a serious decision. Do you use chemicals, or not?”
“Pressure costs”, indeed.
It appears that pressure may have today cost the advanced bioeconomy one of its brightest and most charismatic leaders. As further details come to light, we will share them with the readers.
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