Mossi Ghisolfi is for sale. According to different rumors in Italy, Versalis, the chemical division of the oil giant Eni, and various European (such as the French oil colossus Total) and Asian industrial groups would be interested in acquiring the Italian chemical company which is one of the world’s largest PET manufacturer with a capacity of nearly 1.6 million tonnes per year and plants in Brazil, Mexico and the United States.
“There would be a mainstreaming of the development of the bioeconomy over the next year, and its embedding in other policies. Bioeconomy can reach parts of society and economy that other policies can’t reach”. To say this was John Bell, Director for Bioeconomy at DG Research and Innovation, at the ThinkForest seminar which took place in Brussels last 7 November.
More than 300 delegates from EU, USA, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Latin America and Canada, 40 presentations, 20 scientific posters and a round table on “The role of Shared pilot facilities in fostering the bioeconomy”. These are the numbers of IFIB, the Italian Forum on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioeconomy, which opens today to the world in Rome at Palazzo Rospigliosi.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Elopak, an international supplier of paper based packaging solutions for liquid food, based in Norway and wholly owned by the Ferd Group, and Stora Enso has launched the first gable top carton made from natural brown unbleached paperboard, creating the Naturally Pure-Pak® carton with a highly distinctive, natural look and feel.
Starting in July, the airport buses at Helsinki Airport has been fuelled by diesel manufactured wholly from waste and residue. Finavia – a limited corporation owned fully by the Finnish state, which is responsible for maintaining and developing its 21 airports and Finland’s air navigation system – started a gradual conversion to using renewable diesel in all buses travelling between the terminal and aircraft at Helsinki Airport. It is also Finavia’s goal to encourage other companies operating at its airports to use renewable fuels.
Rome will be the Euro-mediterranean capital of the bioeconomy for a couple of days. The Italian Forum on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioeconomy (IFIB) goes to the Italian capital from 5 to 6 October at the Palazzo Rospigliosi, in front of the House of the President of the Republic.
“Clusters can set an environment for investment and implementation. They can bring the right people together and help to identify both hurdles and how to overcome them, for example by scouting technologies or helping to find access to funding”. To say it – in this long and exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Tatjana Schwabe, scientific advisor at CLIB2021, the German cluster of industrial biotechnology based in Düsseldorf. With Schwabe with talk about the role of clusters in supporting the European bioeconomy.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Italian oil giant Eni, the City of Turin, GTT (Gruppo Torinese Trasporti) and Amiat, an Iren Group company, have signed an agreement to launch a large-scale experimental project with Turin buses using Eni Diesel+, the new Eni fuel with a 15% of renewable component. Under the agreement, the Turin public transport company will pay Eni Diesel+ at the same price as the diesel fuel that its vehicles have used on the urban network up to now. This follows Eni’s success at the tender to supply the fuel for Turin’s buses.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 