Italy mulling prospects for 79 million gallons of advanced biofuels capacity

May 27, 2014 |

In Italy, the Ministry of Economic Development announced its intention to investigate the construction of  three advanced biofuel plants in Southern Italy, using non-food feedstocks.

Biochemtex, the engineering arm of Mossi & Ghisolfi — parent along with Texas Pacific Group and Novozymes in Beta Renewables, is slated to build the facilities, which would be located in Sulcis (in southwestern Sardinia), Termini Imerese (near Palermo, on the island of Sicily), and Puglia (the southeastern-most province on the Italian mainland).

To date, the Ministry of Economic Development has hosted meetings with Biochemtex and a number of major players int he banking sector, and Biochemtex as committed at this point to present a formal proposal with respect to the three sites. The banking and engineering parties involved pledged to develop a common approach to further investigation of feasibility, over the next fortnight.

Each of the projects is expected to have 100 million liters per year in production capacity (26.5 million US gallons), and will feature a mix of wheat straw and energy crops as feedstock, with the proportion changing from site to site.

Beta Renewables executive vice-president Michele Rubino told the Digest that, “We anticipate a final decision in the second half of the year.”

Sebastian Søderberg, Novozymes’ Vice President for Biomass Conversion said, “This is really positive news coming out of Italy. We applaud the Italian government for its interest in advancing second generation biofuels and the green economy. These three new plants will create jobs and energy and benefit the environment. There is still some way to go before they become reality, but this is definitely a good step in the right direction.”

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