Second POWER4BIO cross-visit in Italy

Presentation of POWER4BIO in Brussels

The 2nd POWER4BIO cross-visit took place in Naples, Italy, from the 2nd to the 4th October. In the afternoon of October 2nd, a dedicated POWER4BIO event presented the status of bioeconomy in different Italian regions, with also the participation of regional representatives. Then, Italian bioeconomy strategy, available technologies in the bioeconomy and bioplastics fields were presented by industrial and academic representatives.

On October 3rd and the morning of October 4th, participants attended to IFIB2019, the International Forum on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioeconomy, co-organized by SPRING, with around 250 participants form 30 different countries represents a leading event on bioeconomy in Europe.

IFIB hosted innovative companies such as LanzaTech, Fater, Novamont, Terravesta, Pirelli and Sulzer, research centers such as National Research Council of Italy, VTT of Finland, Wageningen University and Fiat Automotive Research Center. And then: TEAGASC (Ireland), Frost & Sullivan (UK), European Forest Institute, OECD, Bioeconomy Cluster of Slovakia, Cluster Food+i (Spain), Irish Bioeconomy Foundation and many other world bioeconomy stakeholders, giving to the participants the opportunity to know about different aspects, trends and technologies on bioeconomy in Europe.

On the afternoon of October 4th, a visit to the Novamont R&D center of Piana di Monte Verna was organized. Novamont is the Italian lead company for biodegradable and compostable bioplastic production and for the exploitation of biorefineries integrated to the territories to transform different biomasses in value-added compounds and materials. The PR&D center of Piana di Monte Verna is focused on the development of industrial biotechnologies, such as the transformation of raw materials of renewable origin into molecules of industrial interest thanks to specific metabolic pathways naturally present in microorganisms or suitably engineered.