Italy Launches the First Integrated “Bio-Plastics” Network
A low-profile industrial revolution based on corn and sunflower seeds is being born in Terni, a middle-sized Umbrian city, situated some 100 kilometers north of Rome. On Friday 13 October, in this once-prosperous steel and chemical industry cluster, the Italian company Novamont, pioneer in the sector of biodegradable products, inaugurated the “first green bio-refinery in the world, able to produce bio-polyesters based on vegetable oil.” European leader in bio-plastics based on starch thanks to its star product, Master-Bi, 35,000 tons of which already are turned out by the Terni site, the firm is raising its production capacity to 60,000 tons, or about 60% of the global market.
Compared to 40 million tons of petroleum-based plastics consumed in (more…)
