Take a walk through the first fully operational industrial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the world ! This full color illustrated booklet will guide you under pipelines and fly you over tanks and fermenters, as it explains how biofuel is produced, in Crescentino Italy, from biomass such as wheat straw and energy grasses. This so called 2nd generation ethanol is a substitute for gasoline, reduces the world's dependence from oil as well as contributes to stop climate change. The engineering and know-how that brought this plant to life in the heart of rural northern Italy is explained in images, and potential customers looking to create value from agriculture residues get familiar with the technology and process. Open up and look at cellulosic ethanol in full scale operation !

1. Crescentino
Green Revolution

5. 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 agri-
cultural 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 lab-
oratory 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 sup-
ported by the European Commission as part of its Seventh Framework
Programme for research and development.
Crescentino,
the Green Revolution
is Here

6. The demand for alternative solutions to oil has
been pressing for some time now. In the last
century, oil brought about an industrial, eco-
nomic, 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 environ-
mental impact.
Proesa™ technology is the only system capable
of producing bio-ethanol – alcohol for use as
a petrol additive – from agricultural by-prod-
ucts. To date, it has been possible to produce
bio-ethanol using maize, sugar cane and other
vegetable substances, but this has led to seri-
ous conflict between the food and energy uses
of these products with consequent negative re-
percussion on the cost of agricultural crops.
With Proesa™ technology (ethanol production
from biomass) this difficulty has been over-
come, as it is capable of extracting bio-ethanol
from wood and cellulose biomasses such as
Arundo Donax, the giant cane, or from agricul-
tural waste products such as straw.
Why Bio-ethanol?
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Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

7. 5

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Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

10. The Territory and
the Economic Model
8

11. 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 mere-
ly production scrap, can now be used to pro-
duce bio-ethanol, as well as Arundo Donax,
the giant cane, which can be grown on mar-
ginal land, without interfering with agricul-
tural 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.
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Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

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Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

14. 12

15. The bio-refinery stands in an area which pre-
viously housed the Teksid foundry, once be-
longing 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 ware-
house for the storage of the biomasses.
The project was started in 2010, work began
in 2011 and the boiler started producing en-
ergy in the autumn of 2012. In January 2013,
bio-ethanol production began.
Crescentino,
the History
and the Numbers

16. • Value of investment:
e 150 million
• Production: 60,000 tons
of bio-ethanol per year.
The bio-ethanol, mixed with petrol,
is distributed at European level
• Area: 150,000 square metres
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Crescentino
Vital Data

17. • 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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Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

20. The Proesa™ project and the construction
of the Crescentino bio-refinery
were carried out
by Mossi Ghisolfi Group companies.
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.
The Protagonists
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Crescentino The Green Revolution is Here

26. Beta Renewables S.p.A.
Strada Ribrocca, 11
15057, Tortona (AL), Italy
T +39.0131.810.1
info@betarenewables.com
www.betarenewables.com
Photographs
Fabrizio Giraldi
Graphic design
Andrea Lancelotti
Francesca Melli