Netopia Ter/gusb2-n Drivers

the barrel to the container: the new frontiers of biofuel

is better than the Brazilian sugar cane. Recovery of marginal land not used for agriculture

The simple common reed, Arundo donax is its botanical name, one that grows along roadsides or ditches, is the future of biofuels, especially ethanol, which can be added to gasoline. In Brazil, ethanol produced from sugar cane is now a reality for over 30 years, but how to translate well in our climate this opportunity offered to us by nature if the cane does not grow in Italy? Not an easy undertaking, requiring investment of € 120 million and five years of research is needed to find the best plan and develop the process of milling.

M & G - The money has been invested by the group M & G (Mossi and Ghisolfi ), a multinational company with headquarters in Italy, world's leading manufacturer of PET (plastic bottles), 3 000 employees and $ 3 billion of turnover. In 2004 with the acquisition of Chemtex the Italian group has given a change in its strategy, entering the chemical "green" biofuels. And Rivalta Scrivia, near Alessandria, using the possibilities offered by the Science & Technology Park and dall'onlus Energy, the district agricultural and energy Northwest , was born the laboratory where he was born the advanced second-generation bioethanol , that in fact derived from the common reed.

FIVE FEATURES - «Era necessario trovare una pianta che unisse cinque caratteristiche», spiega l’ingegnere Giuseppe Fano, direttore M&G del centro di ricerca di Rivalta Scrivia. «Non fosse alimentare - per uomini o animali - per motivi etici; avesse scarso bisogno di acqua e di concimi; fosse disponibile tutto l’anno; crescesse su terreni marginali poveri e non utilizzati dalle coltivazioni intensive; e fosse autoctona, ampiamente diffusa, disponibile e con un’alta resa. Dopo cinque anni di ricerche e sperimentazioni, l’abbiamo trovata», prosegue Fano. «È la canna comune, che ha tutte le caratteristiche necessarie e inoltre fornisce 40 tonnellate per ettaro di sostanza secca equivalente e, una volta lavorata, delivers 10 tons of bioethanol per hectare, even more than what is obtained from sugar cane in Brazil. "

FIVE FEATURES - "We needed a plan that would combine five characteristics," says the engineer Giuseppe Fano, director of M & G research center Rivalta Scrivia. "There was food - for humans or animals - for ethical reasons, had little need for water and fertilizer, was available throughout the year, grew up poor and marginal lands not used by intensive cultivation, and it was indigenous, widely available and high yield. After five years of research and experimentation, we trovata», prosegue Fano. «È la canna comune, che ha tutte le caratteristiche necessarie e inoltre fornisce 40 tonnellate per ettaro di sostanza secca equivalente e, una volta lavorata, consente di ottenere 10 tonnellate per ettaro di bioetanolo, addirittura di più di quanto si ricava dalla canna da zucchero in Brasile».

FONTE: Paolo Virtuani (corriere.it)