Issue 04/2018

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Events
see page 10-11 for details
materials engineering, biotechnologies, electronics, and mathematics
with an average age of 30.
In the meantime Bio-on announced that it has successfully
completed the first test phase. So far, all tests have been successful
and performed on schedule. “As announced during the inauguration,
we expect to be fully operational by autumn” explained Riccardo
Casoni, “and to be able to produce and to market as early as 2018 a
quantity of PHAs micro powders of about 150 tonnes”.
“Respecting the project deadlines and being able to increase the
production is fundamental”, said Marco Astorri, “since it does not escape
anyone that the new European directive on the reduction of pollution
caused by traditional plastic, which the European Parliament will have
to approve in September, will open a huge market for biodegradable
plastics. And Bio-on has a unique competitive advantage since our
bioplastic is 100 % biodegradable not only on land but also in water”.
Marco Astorri opening the presentation
In a separate meeting on the sidelines of the inauguration in June
bioplastics MAGAZINE spoke to Diego Torresan, Business Development
Manager of Bio-on.
Asked about my introductory sentence of this article, Diego confirmed
tha Bio-on is not the standard biopolymer producer. Their core business
is and will continue to be related to the intellectual properties. So their
main customers are companies that own the biomass, or plastic users
that want to convert from oil-based to renewably based plastics or as
a third group companies that want to buy the biomass and produce
PHA for the plastic users. And the inauguration of the new plant
- a reference plant - does not change this core business, as Diego
emphasised. The products from the new plant - powders - will be used
and sold as powders, mainly for these cosmetic applications or to do
more research, “just like the polymers coming from the pilot plant that
we are running since 2011”, Diego said.
Apart from the cosmetics sector, Bio-on sees a lot of similar niche
markets, such as nanomedical applications, industrial 3D-printing,
and a lot of application in agriculture, e.g. for controlled release
encapsulation and the like. Possible market segments can also be
found in structural applications such as furniture, automotive parts
or toys. Another interesting field of application the so-called bioremediation.
bioplastics MAGAZINE reported in issue 04/2017 about Bioon’s
revolutionary new technology to eliminate oil pollution in the sea
within 3 weeks.
Claudio Luti, President of Kartell (left) and Marco Astorri
Grand Opening Ceremony and Party
Another question concerned the abovementioned renewable plant
sources with no competition with food supply chains. Diego explained
that the sources for Minerv resins are agro-industrial co-products such
as the molasses from sugar cane, crude glycerol from the biodiesel
production or co-products from dates to name just a few.
Concerning potential pressure from shareholders Diego said that
the company that was founded and owned by Marco Astorri and Guy
Cicognani only sold 10% of the company to shareholdes in 2014. Today
30% is owned by shareholders, so there is no pressure influencing any
decisions.
www.bio-on.com
The new plant (Photo:Bio-on)
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