Crescentino Green Revolution

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1 Crescentino Green Revolution

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5 Crescentino, the Green Revolution is Here The Crescentino plant, located in the province of Vercelli, is the first in the world to be designed and built to produce bio-ethanol from agricultural by-products or plants not suitable for food consumption. This is a veritable innovation which many companies in the energy industry, including some of global dimensions, have been trying to achieve for years. But until now, no other company has been able to transform laboratory results into production on an effectively industrial scale. This has been made possible thanks to Proesa technology, developed in the laboratories of Biochemtex, a Mossi Ghisolfi Group company. The expertise developed at Crescentino will enable similar plants to be built in the USA, Latin America, Europe and Asia. The project was supported by the European Commission as part of its Seventh Framework Programme for research and development.

6 4 Why Bio-ethanol? The demand for alternative solutions to oil has been pressing for some time now. In the last century, oil brought about an industrial, economic, social and environmental revolution on a massive scale. Today, society, the regulations and the markets are in need of solutions that will retain the intrinsic properties of oil-derived products, but with reduced costs and environmental impact. Proesa technology is the only system capable of producing bio-ethanol alcohol for use as a petrol additive from agricultural by-products. To date, it has been possible to produce bio-ethanol using maize, sugar cane and other vegetable substances, but this has led to serious conflict between the food and energy uses of these products with consequent negative repercussion on the cost of agricultural crops. With Proesa technology (ethanol production from biomass) this difficulty has been overcome, as it is capable of extracting bio-ethanol from wood and cellulose biomasses such as Arundo Donax, the giant cane, or from agricultural waste products such as straw. Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

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10 8 The Territory and the Economic Model

11 9 The Crescentino bio-refinery is located in an important agricultural area, especially for rice, wheat and maize production. It is therefore a natural reserve for biomass at limited costs, situated close to the plant, with most supplies coming from around 70 km away. Rice and wheat straw, once regarded as merely production scrap, can now be used to produce bio-ethanol, as well as Arundo Donax, the giant cane, which can be grown on marginal land, without interfering with agricultural food production. The high efficiency of Proesa technology, limited transport costs and reliability of the production chain all contribute to making the Crescentino model highly competitive and suitable for replication in other areas and territories. Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

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13 11 Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

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15 Crescentino, the History and the Numbers The bio-refinery stands in an area which previously housed the Teksid foundry, once belonging to the Fiat Group but left inoperative for many years. This area was chosen because it is located in the centre of an agricultural area, has its own internal rail link and is relatively close to the Biochemtex Italia laboratories in Rivalta Scrivia, where Proesa technology was developed. In addition, a part of the old foundry has been reused, following its conversion into a warehouse for the storage of the biomasses. The project was started in 2010, work began in 2011 and the boiler started producing energy in the autumn of In January 2013, bio-ethanol production began.

16 14 Crescentino Vital Data Value of investment: 150 million Production: 40,000 tons of bio-ethanol per year. The bio-ethanol, mixed with petrol, is distributed at European level Area: 150,000 square metres

17 Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here 15 Biomass used: 270,000 tons per year (at maximum output) Biomass storage capacity: 27,000 tons Electricity production: 13 MW, produced entirely from lignin The plant is entirely self-sufficient in its energy consumption. Water recycling: 100%, The industrial production carried out in the plant creates no reflux Workforce: 100 approx The following were required to build the plant: 370 machines 1,500 tons of steel 1,400 tons of piping and valves 30,000 tons of concrete 18 kilometres of underground piping.

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20 18 The Proesa project and the construction of the Crescentino bio-refinery were carried out by Mossi Ghisolfi Group companies. The Protagonists The objective of Beta Renewables, in partnership with Novozymes, is to promote Proesa technology globally. Biochemtex developed the technology and designed and built the plant. Italian Bio Products (IBP) is responsible for the operational management of the Crescentino plant. Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

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26 Beta Renewables S.p.A. Strada Ribrocca, , Tortona (AL), Italy T info@betarenewables.com Photographs Fabrizio Giraldi Graphic design Andrea Lancelotti Francesca Melli