Executive Summary:
Today's societies are heavily reliant on oil, and the transition to more renewable and sustainable ingredients presents a significant challenge. Biorefineries are central to achieving this shift by utilizing biomass, which does not compete with food as a raw material, and by creating a portfolio of competitive products. Methods such as steam explosion allow the industry to extract and separate biomass into valuable raw materials without the use of catalysts, providing a concrete example of zero emissions and waste converted into value at low cost. Research has shown that substances like the tobacco plant offer far more than just income from a deadly smoking habit. We are increasingly discovering the potential of agricultural and forestry products to create useful biochemicals, animal feed, and enzymes. As we begin to move towards a new type of sustainability known as the "blue economy," we must not forget to repurpose disused factories and contaminated sites—stranded assets—to stimulate a local and competitive economy and have a positive impact on the environment.
Keywords: biorefineries, oil, renewable and sustainable ingredients, agricultural waste, petrochemicals, steam explosion, waste, biochemicals, animal feed, local economic development, untapped assets, job creation.
Humble beginnings: Dr. Aurelio Peccei
In 1986, Dr. Umberto Colombo, President of ENEA (the Italian Institute for Alternative Energies Research) and Vice-President of the Club of Rome, agreed to write the foreword to my book, "Aurelio Peccei: The Crusader of the Future, a Portrait of the Founder of the Club of Rome." From that moment on, he offered me strong support for my work. Aurelio Peccei was a remarkable leader who had headed major industrial companies such as FIAT and Olivetti, and with whom I had the privilege of working for four years (1980-1984). I met Dr. Peccei when I had just been elected student leader in Belgium (AIESEC). He always encouraged me to remain independent and never accept a job with a multinational corporation or a large consulting firm. He maintained that the world needs people with a creative mind, an appetite for calculated risks, and clarity about the path forward despite the opposition of experts. This is the role he encouraged me to play in society. After Aurelio Peccei's death in 1984, the leaders of the Club of Rome did not welcome my presence at their meetings, unlike Dr. Peccei, who not only encouraged me to join them but also put me in the hot seat to share my views. I had joined the Club at the same time as Dr. Juan Rada, director of the International Management Institute (IMI) in Geneva and later senior vice president of Oracle Corporation. Although we were marginalized in a think tank that aimed to study the long-term effects of social and economic developments on a global scale, we benefited from a high-level thought process delivered by a dedicated group of leading thinkers eager to see a new generation of disruptors emerge. Umberto Colombo, Hugo Thiemann (director of the Battelle Memorial Institute), Bohdan Hawrylyshyn (director of the CEI Centre for Industrial Studies in Geneva), Maurice Guernier (inspector of finance for the French government), Orio Giarini (director of the Swiss-based insurance research institute), and Carl-Göran Hedén (director of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm) were pleased to become occasional mentors after Dr. Peccei's death.
The development of biorefineries was one of the main topics that engaged this small group of forward-thinking individuals. Their arguments highlighted the difficulty of transitioning from a society heavily dependent on oil to one based on renewable and sustainable resources. The harsh reality is that oil is cracked and then synthesized into thousands of man-made molecules, while agricultural and forestry resources are planted in monocultures for a single product, and everything else is wasted. These experts disregarded the prevailing logic that agricultural waste should be used to replenish soil, since plants do not provide the most efficient nutrition to the soil; residues must be processed by animals, fungi, and bacteria, and their waste constitutes an ideal nutrient for the soil. It is the waste of waste that has become central to the matter-nutrition-energy cascade that characterizes the principles of "zero emissions." The lively debate and key proposals focused on transforming all renewable biomass raw materials using the same logic as petrochemical refineries to obtain dozens of functional chemicals, food, and animal feed. Dr. Colombo undertook a vast research program at ENEA, investing over €100 million over the years, and Maurice Guernier positioned it as a revolution that would ensure Africa's development by influencing African heads of state. Professor Hedén, who worked on this subject in a practical way, forged connections all over the world. He encouraged me to pursue this pioneering model of economic development as soon as I took on the role of senior advisor to the Rector of UNU in 1994.
The tobacco industry: More than just a cigarette
Professor Hedén is a physician who developed a keen interest in biology and headed that department for many years at the Karolinska Institute, the renowned medical research institute and hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. When the tobacco industry came under increased scrutiny in the 1970s from the general public and Scandinavian policymakers in particular, the Swedish National Tobacco Company decided to launch a research program to study the composition of the tobacco plant. It designed a comprehensive facility that would allow for the separation of the biomass and the extraction of some 2,000 distinct molecules from the plant. Literature reviews demonstrated that the tobacco plant contains a multitude of components, in addition to nicotine, that represent a value far exceeding the revenue that could be generated from the production of a single cigarette. This research, closely followed by Professor Hedén, sparked a debate among engineers about how to design the tobacco refinery and which ingredients should be extracted first.
The research program continued for several years until pressure from the Swedish government reached a new peak in the 1980s, leading to further cuts in spending on tobacco research. The Swedish Tobacco Company sensed it was on the verge of a fundamental rediscovery, prompting it to accelerate the search for a new business model by diversifying into the plant's potential instead of selling tobacco's toxicity. The move to North Carolina (USA) brought greater openness and flexibility in terms of costs and allowed tobacco researchers to discover a range of processing technologies that had not been explored in Sweden. Central to the separation and isolation technique was the process known as vapor explosion. I learned about the steam explosion in early 1994, just after I had started ZERI's operations in Japan, and I was astonished to find that, as an active anti-smoking advocate, I had to acknowledge that a few people in the cigarette industry were devising highly sustainable industrial processes from which we could learn a great deal. The rationale for establishing the research center in North Carolina (USA) was inspired by the fact that 80% of the crop residue in that state is located in the coastal zone, making transportation cheap and easy. The total volume of corn stalks and wheat straw could be used to produce 200 million liters of ethanol per year. Considering that delivery is limited to just 40 kilometers around the production plant, the coastal region of North Carolina could then establish four ethanol plants thanks to the availability of biomass in the area. This decentralized production model base determined the size of operations and the energy balance of production.
The explosion effect of steam
Steam blasting is a plant material separation and extraction technique that requires virtually no chemicals or catalysts. It uses saturated steam (180–230 °C) under high pressure (15–30 kg/cm²) to expose the shredded biomass. These physical conditions break the chemical bonds between lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose, the three main components of a plant. When this biomass is forced through a narrow nozzle, the material loses its physical structure, making it more soluble in water. It was one of the first industrial innovations to demonstrate that physics should precede chemistry. Steam blasting has the potential to replace chemical pulping and black liquor (waste) while generating a rich portfolio of new revenue streams. Products obtained include lignin, which can be used to produce carbon fibers, vanillin, and asphalt. Hemicellulose is a polymer composed of five- or six-carbon sugars that can be used to produce natural sweeteners like xylitol or natural solvents. Cellulose is a glucose polymer used to make paper and textiles, or to produce alcohol. While I was looking for concrete examples of zero emissions and zero waste to present at the meeting where the Kyoto Protocol would be decided in 1997, this $7 million US-funded pilot biomass refinery provided a compelling demonstration that the process is not only technically viable but also financially sound. Pressure on tobacco manufacturers intensified, and the government-imposed research halt in the 1990s brought this research program to a halt. Fortunately, Professor Hedén managed to maintain contact with the defunct research team through the Biofocus Foundation and secured a commitment that the facility could be used for non-tobacco research. The Biofocus Foundation, headed by Tommy Jonsson, brought together a group of pioneering thinkers including Walter Truett Anderson, president of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, Gunnel Dalhammar of the Royal Stockholm Technical University (KTH), and Sam Nilsson of the Nobel Foundation. This effort was supported by MIRCEN (Microbiology Resource Center of UNESCO), later led by Jacky Foo, who had been part of the team from the very beginning at UNU in Tokyo. A team of European experts visited the operations in the United States in 1995. I joined the group, accompanied by David Crockett, the city councilman of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who wanted to bring the facility to his city as part of his efforts to reindustrialize the region. Chattanooga aimed to become America's first sustainable city, and based on a dozen visits between 1993 and 1995, I helped design a new industrial development model that included electric bus transportation, the first of its kind in the United States and still considered a pioneering system. The second UNU Zero Emissions World Congress was held in Chattanooga in 1996, attended by U.S. Secretary of Energy Hazel R. O'Leary. The keynote address was given by Edgar Woolard, CEO of DuPont; Craven Crowell, Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority; and several up-and-coming politicians who are still influential senators, such as U.S. Senators Bill Frist and Fred Thompson. One of the main topics of the conference was "material separation technologies" as the basis for biorefineries. The topic was not sustainability; the world congress highlighted innovations that could guide businesses towards competitiveness and sustainability.
The Tigney process and pile technology
I was impressed by the simple design of the North Carolina plant and the ease with which this equipment could separate plant material into fractions. It was a good example of zero emissions and the cascading of nutrients, energy, and material at low cost while generating superior value. However, the disbanding of the initial research team due to tobacco restrictions prompted Professor Hedén to travel the world in search of comparable initiatives. The main scientific debate was whether the biorefinery could be a batch or continuous process. One group of engineers argued in favor of the batch process, as it allowed for better control of temperature, pressure, and energy recovery. This group, known as the "Tigney process," was invented by Edward DeLong. This technology was adopted by Swedish scientists who paid approximately one million dollars for access to the patents. The second process, known as Stake Technology, was a continuous separation and extraction method.
North American scientists (both Canadian and American) were eager to develop a portfolio of processes that would add value to wood beyond incineration or use solely for ethanol. The basic rationale had been established: separate the lignin from the cellulose and hemicellulose so that the biomass would be ready for hydrolysis and the residues, including pentose sugars, could be used for purposes other than simply fermenting ethanol. Half a dozen technology companies sprang up in North America and seized the opportunity to generate chemicals and fuel. These included companies such as Iogen (Ottowa www.iogen.ca), which uses steam explosion to treat straw with proprietary enzymes; Bionol Corp, later renamed BC International (Dedham, Massachusetts www.bcintlcorp.com), which transforms corn stalks, bagasse, and wood chips into biochemicals, but focuses on ethanol; Arkenol (Sacramento, California), which works on concentrated hydrolysis; Paszner ACOS (Vancouver, Canada); as well as Stake Technology and Tigney, already mentioned. Stake Technology is the only group that understood, as early as the 1990s, that the key lies not only in creating a biorefinery and extracting multiple revenue streams from biomass. The entrepreneurs who invested years in this technology sought ways to generate more value by getting closer to the consumer, which led to the merger of Stake Technology Ltd. with Pro Organics, which provides the most comprehensive range of certified organic products, organic bulk foods, and natural products. Initially, the merger was rejected because it did not fit with the business logic and core competencies advocated by traditional business strategists. However, Jeremy Kendall, then president and CEO of SunOpta (the name of the newly merged company), saw an opportunity as early as 2003 (www.sunopta.com) to offer integrated business models, combining a set of innovative production processes with healthy and competitive consumer products. Since then, Steven Bromley has led the company, which is listed on the NASDAQ and whose total global revenue exceeded $1.2 billion in 2013.
Dr. Janis Gravitis: Extraordinary Scientist
When Professor Hedén visited the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, which had gained their independence in the early 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union, he realized that many of their research institutes, deprived of funding by Moscow, were now struggling to survive, despite their exceptionally strong scientific foundations. He met Professor Dr. Chem. Dr. Habil Janis Gravitis, head of the Eco-Efficient Biomass Conversion Laboratory at the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry (LSIWC). Dr. Gravitis had earned his doctorate from the USSR Academy of Sciences and had worked on strategic research primarily for military applications. During the Soviet era, his research team was unknown, and all correspondence had to be addressed to Factory 127 in Moscow. This research institute played a pivotal role in the development of the Soviet space program. Soviet and Russian spacecraft re-enter the atmosphere and land instead of plunging into the sea, thanks to an exceptional heat shield that, at one time, was derived from wood.
When Professor Hedén discovered that the LSIWC was designing and operating its own version of the steam explosion, he encouraged me to make direct contact. The meeting with Dr. Gravitis in 1995 in Riga, Latvia, was truly enlightening. This unassuming scientist, surrounded by a group of highly intelligent academics, not only mastered wood chemistry but also designed and built his own equipment. I had rarely felt such wisdom in a room. While their language was often too technical for an economist with an MBA, the team of Valery Ozols-Kalnins, Bruno Andersons, Janis Zandersons, and Arnis Kokorevics took the time to explain and clarify their complex ideas. A single meeting was enough to convince me that this team possessed the know-how to create a 21st-century biomass refinery that would become the cornerstone of the Zero Emissions Research Initiative (ZERI), which was to offer a fresh perspective on business competitiveness following the conclusion of an agreement known as the Kyoto Protocol. After consulting with Tarcisio Della Senta, Vice-Rector of the United Nations University, and securing the support of Dr. Motoyuki Suzuki, Director of the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo and one of the leading scientists on the Japanese government's Zero Emissions Research Program, I made the bold decision to invite Dr. Gravitis to live and work with his family in Tokyo; he accepted the offer.
Dr. Colombo's vision: Biofuels and biochemicals
In 1995, Dr. Umberto Colombo learned of this progress and took a closer look at the development of this steam explosion. We had regular conversations about the way forward. He was convinced that petrochemical plants would soon become white elephants and that moving forward required figuring out how to convert these investments into productive units by replacing petroleum as a raw material with biomass. He introduced me to Dr. Catia Bastioli, who led the conversion of Montedison's bioplastics research laboratory into an independent company called Novamont. Umberto Colombo was very close to the strategic thinking of Raul Gardini—the flamboyant Italian entrepreneur who believed that the future lay in consolidating strategic activities rather than blindly focusing on a core business with a specific expertise. Gardini's vision was to first group chemicals and energy, then merge food production (especially sugar) into this super-cluster to create a conglomerate based on biofuels and biochemicals, strengthening agriculture by generating more products and greater value. This was an early version of the blue economy. Gardini's logic was developed with a view to the long-term competitiveness of a region and coincided with the logic that members of the Club of Rome had theoretically developed in the early 1970s. After Raul Gardini lost control of his emerging conglomerate, the new management quickly reversed his progress, and it took the courage of Dr. Catia Bastioli to ensure that the bioplastic component, with polymers derived from wasted biomass, had a future.
Bioplastics derived from renewable sources
The world of bioplastics wasn't new to me. As president of Ecover, I had discussed potential collaborations with ICI Chemicals in 1991 and 1992. The British group, under the leadership of John Harvey-Jones, had developed a bacterial plastic under the Biopol brand, but it was struggling to gain market access. It was remarkable that this traditional chemical group, headed by a president who wasn't a chemist, had laid one of the European foundations for bioplastics. Even though these Biopol containers were more expensive than traditional petrochemical containers, I was determined to use them for my biodegradable detergents. Unfortunately, these plastics weren't stable enough for our liquid soaps and didn't meet the quality standards, which spurred me to continue my research. Little did I know that as soon as I relinquished control of the detergent group, this project would be shelved. Nevertheless, the heated debate on bioplastics made from food had already begun in 1992, and the opportunity to find packaging derived from bacteria that had fattened themselves on sugar seemed like an excellent alternative.
Biorefineries: Generating revenue and competitive products
I finally met Dr. Catia Bastioli for a longer series of meetings in 1999 at the ENI-sponsored international congress on the theme "Towards Zero Emissions: The Challenge for Hydrocarbons," where she presented her vision for Novamont. Dr. Gravitis also participated in a presentation with the provocative title, "A Way to Produce Value Added Products and Base for Agricultural Zero Emissions." The Japanese contribution of Hiroyuki Fujimura, president of EBARA, paved the way for a remarkable framework where Italy's eighth-largest oil company (ENI) and largest petrochemical group (Versalis) initiated a debate, under the leadership of Umberto Colombo, their current chairman, to create a new paradigm for energy and chemicals. The focus was on how to move toward a chemical world where biorefineries provide additional income for farmers while generating products that compete in performance and price with traditional petrochemicals. While the meeting itself remained a unique event, never replicated on this scale under the auspices of a major oil company, it catalyzed broader interest in the topic among academics, policymakers, and businesses.
Over the years, Dr. Gravitis built a strong core group in Tokyo, with the support of Masako Unoura, who served as my personal assistant in Japan for many years. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries took the lead, under the guidance of the team I had assembled at UNU's Institute for Advanced Study. A multitude of topics were explored and compiled into articles, all sharing a common thread: biorefineries. The transformation of agricultural products emerged as a source of multiple revenue streams, a key feature of zero emissions and the blue economy. The topics covered ranged from the separation of non-timber forest products and the environmental management of plantations in the tropics (particularly oil palm) to the generation of additional income, the production of cross-linked polymers from biomass, the production of glucose and water-soluble polysaccharides from cellulose, and the use of sugarcane bagasse as a wood source for charcoal. The research resulted in new biomass processing techniques for the production of chemicals, biofuels, and composite materials. One of the first commercial products was a self-adhesive fiberboard.
This new type of fiberboard was used as the roof of the ZERI Pavilion at the 2000 World Expo in Hanover. It was supplied by Taiheiyo Cement thanks to the leadership of Masatsugu Taniguchi, Senior Vice President and member of the Board of Directors, and his colleague, Noriaki Hayama, Head of Innovation. Taiheiyo Cement was committed to developing a carbon-neutral board. Following the global ban on asbestos, the search for eco-friendly fibers was wide open until our work in biorefineries and bamboo caught the attention of a Japanese research team that went to Indonesia to plant 2,000 hectares of bamboo. This green bamboo was harvested and continuously ground, cut into small fibers no longer than 2.5 millimeters, which triggered autohydrolysis, and then pressed into panels containing 50% cement and 50% bamboo (75% cement by weight and only 25% bamboo). Taiheiyo has seen great success with the introduction of this panel to the construction industry. Its raw form has a distinguished pastel green hue, it is carbon-neutral, and it absorbs noise—a feature highly valued by high-speed rail (Shinkansen) stations in Japan, which have all adopted this panel as a new standard. The success of this initiative, based on a better understanding of the self-hydrolysis of bamboo (and other woods), led the CEO of Taiheiyo Cement to donate the roof of the ZERI pavilion at the Expo in recognition of our contribution to this new activity. The rapid translation of research related to the biorefinery concept and the arrival of several commercial products strengthened the program through the diversity of academic interest. While UNU and the Institute of Industrial Science initiated the international effort with the support of Latvia and Sweden, the program attracted the attention of the Japanese Scientific Council, then chaired by Professor Jiro Kondo, the American Chemical Society, the Japanese Wood Research Society, the International Lignin Institute, and the International Research Centre for Sustainable Materials. By 2004, the research had matured to the point that the European Union confirmed its strategic interest in the subject and launched funding programs. Even though the research can clearly be considered a success, I struggled and began to lose patience with the fact that, due to excessive bureaucracy and funding difficulties, the North Carolina facility was never restarted, and the few $500,000 machines produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry hardly confirmed the advent of the industrial scale we were seeking. By 2005, I had concluded that I was trying to be the wave and that it was time to step back and try to be the surfer.
Forests and mobility
During an intellectual and strategic dialogue between Peter Senge (author of "The Fifth Dimension") and myself, organized by Göran Carstedt, director of SOL (System Organization Learning), I had the opportunity to meet the entrepreneurs behind the first wood chemistry biorefinery I had ever seen in operation. Located in Önsköldsvik (northern Sweden), it viewed wood as a multifaceted source of biochemicals and fuels, including ethanol. Per Carstedt, Göran's brother, who owned a Ford dealership, had made the bold decision to buy 1,000 Ford ethanol-powered cars in the United States and sell them in the Umeå region of northern Sweden, thus creating a demand for biofuel. This decision triggered the demand and led to the conversion of the pulp mill into the first stage of the biorefinery, combining pulp production with ethanol production. His strategy worked, and the plant was operational with a guarantee of local ethanol purchases for every 1,000 vehicles. The integrated cash flow from car sales and then fuel sales created conditions that demonstrated the viability of strengthening local economies. The car manufacturer SAAB quickly recognized the demand for a cleaner fuel and launched the first 100% ethanol car. Truck manufacturer SKANDIA followed suit, designing and assembling ethanol-powered trucks. The power of an initiative taken by an ordinary citizen on the periphery of the world (northern Sweden is not exactly a renewable energy hub) should never be underestimated.
This demand-driven market transformation spurred local entrepreneurs to take the initiative and create the first biorefinery. It was implemented by SEKAB AB at its Domsjö plant. Previously producing traditional cellulose for paper products, it then opted to generate lignin and ethanol as additional revenue streams. SEKAB's dry lignin capacity increased in 2012 to 120,000 tonnes. This represents a major shift from centuries-old chemical processing practices that treated lignin as waste, at best using it as fuel (in black liquor). Byproducts made from these biochemical derivatives include windshield washer fluid, vinegar, water-based paints, pharmaceutical ingredients, perfumes, cleaning products, varnishes, and inks. The fuel is a diesel-grade ethanol containing 95% pure ethanol. The research network has expanded to include the Science Partners Technical Research Institute, led by CEO Maria Khorsand, and the Processum Biorefinery Initiative AB, with Peter Blomqvist as Chairman and Clas Engström and John Rune as shareholders. Processum Biorefinery Initiative AB develops additional products and processes for 21 companies located on Sweden's northern Baltic coast, employing 1,300 researchers and experts. This center is rapidly becoming a hub of expertise unlike any other. Chalmers and Lund Universities have also joined the initiative and institutionalized the research.
Photo-Biorefinery: Harnessing the Power of the Sun
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, things have been quietly progressing with the concept of the photobiorefinery, a refinery powered by the sun. This is the brainchild of Professor
Lucio Brusch, founder of the ZERI Brasil Foundation, and his friend and colleague, Professor Jorge Alberto Vieira Costa, from the School of Chemistry and Nutrition at the University of Rio Grande, located in the city of Rio Grande. Their vision of the photobiorefinery stemmed from an effort to convert a rice paddy into a production unit for rice, fish, and spirulina. The goal was to produce more with existing facilities rather than extract more from existing raw materials. As we have learned in this case, the principle of "doing more with what you have" can be applied in various contexts. Southern Brazil, often described as the wealthy region of the country, has pockets of poverty. The elimination of fertilizer subsidies imposed by the World Bank and the IMF triggered a major crisis for rice farmers in the early 1990s. Having introduced mushroom cultivation on rice straw, we then sought to generate more income with microalgae. It was clear that this part of the world, with its rich microalgae biodiversity, could and should transform rice paddies into bioreactors.
Microalgae production was a resounding success. The doubling of biomass every 24 hours encouraged researchers, who had been exposed to the principles of biorefineries during Janis Gravitis and Carl-Göran Hedén's visits to Brazil, to apply them to microalgae. At the time, almost all microalgae research was focused on biofuel production. Since lipids and oils were only a minor component, the research team set out to identify all other possible uses of algae. The CNPq (Brazil's National Research Council for Scientific and Technological Development) agreed to fund the research, and the results were remarkable. If microalgae are produced solely for biofuel production, they are not competitive. However, if the focus is on producing nutrients and biochemicals for polymers, oils, and lipids, the photobiorefinery will be highly profitable. The Seival thermal power plant, located outside Porto Alegre, Brazil, proved to be the ideal partner for this program. It operates one of Brazil's few carbon-neutral power plants, and the knowledge gained from cultivating spirulina in rice paddies has been applied on an industrial scale. The photobiorefinery concept in Brazil has become a significant reservoir of expertise, considered one of the top five in the world, with nearly 50 graduates at the master's and doctoral levels.
Italy takes the lead in biorefineries
The latest breakthrough in the design and implementation of biorefineries has been achieved in Italy. The foundations were laid by Raul Gardini thirty years ago, with a strategic industrial vision, the commitment of Professor Umberto Colombo, who, after his pioneering work at ENEA, became Minister of Science and Higher Education, and the drive for implementation by Catia Bastioli. What began as a research laboratory producing bioplastics under the brand name "Mater-Bi" has, twenty years later, become a pioneering company that fosters local economic development by transforming agricultural by-products, extracting polymers, elastomers, herbicides, and lubricants, and forming the building blocks of dozens of products based on azelaic acids, pelargonic acids, and esters. The result is a new portfolio of building blocks for new generations of (bio)chemical products. The waste can be transformed into animal feed and the natural enzymes from thistle flowers are essential to cheese production.
Reuse of disused factories
While the biorefinery concept is entering the modern era based on the vision of a sustainable production and consumption system, it is essential to emphasize that the ability to implement the transformation of biomass into multiple revenue streams is only part of the breakthrough. Novamont's second advancement is the reuse of existing investments in petrochemical infrastructure. The significant contribution of Catia Bastioli and her team lies not only in the design of the biochemistry and process innovations, but also in finding new uses for existing facilities, which industry jargon refers to as "stranded capital." The infrastructure and health and safety culture, known as "responsible care," of a petrochemical plant represent a considerable capital investment that should not be amortized due to overinvestment in the Middle East and China caused by overcapacity. Furthermore, the cost of remediation due to the unintended consequences of the inadvertent use of catalysts or construction materials (such as asbestos) weighs heavily on the bottom line. Whenever a chemical plant or any other production unit built three or four decades ago needs to be closed, the owners will have to set aside a provision for closure and remediation costs. The bill could easily run into hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. The question now is what will generate the most revenue and grow the economy: the cleanup or the reinvestment to breathe new life into the site so that it becomes a permanent business concern for a few more decades with an innovative business model. The blue economy approach aims to make operations sustainable and ensure that we use what is available locally, including lost capital investments and the reallocation of remediation expenditures.
Novamont has never built a facility from scratch; It has always taken an existing operation and converted it into a production unit, giving it new life through new cash flow. The headquarters and research facilities in Novara are the former Montedison research operations; the bankrupt Ajinomoto facilities in Bottrighe, Italy, were converted into modern fermentation units; the former Mossi & Ghisolfi PET bottle plant in Patricia, Italy, was also transformed; and the list goes on. The largest and most extensive plant conversion was implemented in 2014 when Novamont's research and engineering team successfully repurposed Italy's first petrochemical cracker, located in Porto Torres, Sardinia, into the world's largest biorefinery, named Matrica. This is a 50/50 joint venture between ENI/Versalis and Novamont. This production plant set a new benchmark by transforming 2.5 million tons of crude oil into 700,000 tons of chemicals with a facility that processes a weed.
The success of any biorefinery hinges on the availability of a renewable feedstock. An estimated 70,000 hectares of Sardinian farmland have been taken out of production over the years as the European Union attempted to reduce the supply of expensive commodities it had committed to purchasing at a fixed price. The rationale was that it was cheaper to pay farmers not to cultivate the land than to have to buy the commodities. However, weeds invade and dominate when land is left uncultivated and unplanted for years. The most widespread weed in Sardinia, and indeed throughout the Mediterranean, is known as thistle or cardoon (Silybum marianum). While the opportunity to utilize the capital's land for biochemistry was clear, it was the knowledge of cardoon chemistry that provided a new rationale for this latest biorefinery.
Imagine first a disused petrochemical plant, then the cardoon chemistry plant that supplies four chemicals (polymers, elastomers, lubricants, and herbicides) whose waste is used in animal feed. Local farmers rely on soybean imports from Brazil for their food, as is the norm worldwide. Today, the plant's waste, after producing the building blocks for four major chemicals, is being repurposed as animal feed. To everyone's surprise, the local population wondered if we had the "dust" from the cardoon flowers, which turned out to be bacterial enzymes needed to make traditional goat cheese. When you start converting a petrochemical plant, cheese production doesn't naturally appear as an opportunity for economic development. However, when we apply the logic of the blue economy, we embark on a process that evolves over time and offers possibilities that no one had imagined. This is where science meets business: one has the certainty of the laws of physics and the predictability of chemistry, the other has the drive to turn an idea into reality.
Capital follows innovation
To date, the investment has been driven by programs from Sweden, with over €250 million, and Italy, which has committed over €500 million in capital to seven facilities across the country and at least €200 million for research and development. Brazilian research has mobilized approximately €15 million over the years, almost entirely from the government. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Industrial Research Institute have also committed over €20 million for the ongoing production of laboratory equipment. If we include the investments from Tigney and Stake Technologies, we must add another €120 million. While these additional capital expenditures are substantial, they are made by organizations and companies with which we previously had no prior relationship; nor do we include the ENEA research facilities, which represent over €100 million for equipment and basic research.
The job creation factor is also crucial. Biorefineries generate more jobs than a typical pulp and paper mill or a standard petrochemical plant. This contributes to local economic growth. While direct employment remains limited, and the initiative groups have created approximately 45,000 jobs, the number of indirect jobs exceeds 100,000, primarily due to the additional stimulus provided to agriculture and forestry. The figures from Porto Torres are highly indicative. ENI needed 2.5 million tons of crude oil to manufacture 700,000 chemicals, and its production facilities were not competitive. At its peak, Matrica may only produce half that amount, but it will be globally competitive and generate a comparable number of direct jobs, while also stimulating local agriculture, instead of funding governments across the Mediterranean.
Sweden, Italy, Brazil, and Canada may not be the world's most dominant economies, but their research capacity is strong, and their patent portfolios in these fields number in the thousands. Clearly, biorefining has come a long way since Professor Hedén spoke to members of the Swedish parliament about the wonders of biotechnology and microbiology. His message was not an endorsement of genetic modification, but rather a call to create greater value from renewable resources as a strategy to preserve Sweden's competitiveness. In effect, he was advocating for the blue economy long before the concept existed. It is therefore not surprising that when he was invited by Heitor Gurgulino de Souza, the Rector of UNU, to lead the team tasked with undertaking the feasibility study of UNU's "zero emissions" initiative, he concluded: "The 'zero emissions' option proposed by Gunter Pauli is not only technically, scientifically, and economically viable, it is necessary if we are to achieve our goal of sustainable societies."
Gunter's Fables Translation
The mushroom trade inspired me from the very beginning to write two fables: fable no. 41, "Fuel from the Tree," dedicated to Paolo Lugari. He was the one who inspired the creation of this hub back in 1987, through my discussions about biorefineries using fuel from regenerated rainforest in Colombia. Fable no. 5, "Why Don't They Love Me?", is partly inspired by the bamboo fiberboard produced by Taiheiyo Cement in Indonesia.
For more information
www.iea-bioenergy.task42-biorefineries.com/upload_mm/5/6/5/77945a06-c177-4f33- bca2-ce95b84383b0_ENEA_pretreatment_labs_01.pdf
link.springer.com/article/10.1385/ABAB:98-100:1-9:89#page-1
www.sp.se/en/press/news/Sidor/20130530.aspx
www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/90/SunOpta-Inc.html
www.novamont.com/
archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80362e/80362E00.htm
http://tal.tv/es/video/los-hongos-de-francenid-perdomo/
