The world's largest biorefinery for ethanol is Italian

The world's first commercial-scale plant for the production of bioethanol from non-food biomass sources was officially inaugurated on October 9, 2013 in Crescentino (near Vercelli in the North of Italy). The bio-refinery is owned by Beta Renewables, a joint venture between Biochemtex, a Mossi Ghisolfi Group engineering company, the American fund TPG (Texas Pacific Group), and the Danish company Novozymes, a world leader in bio-innovation.
Operating at full capacity, it will will produce 75 million litres/year of second generation bioethanol from non-food biomass such as agricultural residues.
The Crescentino plant, a 150 million euro capital investment, has won Italy a high-ranking position in the world for ground-breaking technological progress in the strategic industrial sector of green chemistry. The project was supported by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.
The bio-refinery, with a footprint of 15 hectares, will have a positive economic impact in the region, employing directly a staff of approximately one hundred and creating more than 200 indirect jobs.
The "revolutionary" feature of the bio-refinery is the technology platform that is used to obtain bioethanol. In fact, the innovative PROESA (PROduzione di Etanolo da biomasSA - Production of ethanol from biomass) technology combined with Cellic enzymes produced by Novozymes makes use of sugars that are present in lignocellulosic (non-food) biomass to obtain alcohol, fuel and other chemical products with low emissions of greenhouses gases at competitive costs, compared to fossil fuels. Moreover, the Proesa technology produces biofuels that ensure a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions close to 90% of those generated by fossil fuels, substantially better that the reduction achieved by 1st generation biofuels.
The Proesa technology was developed by Biochemtex, a Mossi Ghisolfi Group engineering company, at the Rivalta Scrivia Research Centre in Alessandria. The Research Centre, which is entirely dedicated to renewable sources, started up a pilot plant for biofuel production in 2009.
The ceremony was held before the Minister for Economic Development Flavio Zanonato and the local Authorities (president of the regional administration Roberto Cota, mayor of Crescentino Marinella Venegoni, president of the provincial administration Carlo Riva Vercellotti).