The Role of Industrial
Biotechnology in Boosting
the Italian Bioeconomy
Mario Bonaccorso
Assobiotec
IEA BioEnergy- Sassari, 5 May 2015
Assobiotec: who we are
Created in 1986 within Federchimica, Assobiotec is
the Italian Association for the development of
Biotechnology and represents today:
More than 140 Associates
Our Associates are companies and science parks
involved in research, development, testing,
manufacturing and commercialization of
biotechnology applications
www.assobiotec.it
AGENDA
 Is Italy doing well in the Biotech Sector?
 Bioeconomy in Italy and in EU
 Bioeconomy or Bio(t)economy?
 Conclusions
Is Italy doing well
in the Biotech
Sector?
The Italian Biotech Sector
Number of companies




Companies
R&D employees
Biotech turnover
R&D investments
Total
Pure Biotech
422
6.626
7,050 mln €
1,517 mln €
264
2.457
1,490 mln €
438 mln €
Source: Ernst & Young – Assobiotec, BioInItaly Report 2014
International Benchmarking

Italy is third in Europe in terms of pure biotech companies
Source: Ernst & Young – Assobiotec, BioInItaly Report 2014
Small and Micro Companies are the Majority
Total biotech companies
Pure biotech companies
Source: Ernst & Young – Assobiotec, BioInItaly Report 2014
Geographic Distribution
Total Biotech Companies
Biotech companies are mainly concentrated in Northern and Central Italy
Lombardy is the region with the highest number of biotech companies (127)
Source: Ernst & Young – Assobiotec, BioInItaly Report 2014
Analysis by Application Field
Comparison between years 2012 and 2013
Source: Ernst & Young – Assobiotec, BioInItaly Report 2014
WHITE and GREEN Biotech
Green
White








Companies
R&D employees
Biotech turnover
R&D investments
Companies
R&D employees
Biotech turnover
R&D investments
Total
Pure Biotech
94
843
147 mln €
106 mln €
66
506
78 mln €
48 mln €
69
567
241 mln €
29 mln €
41
535
238 mln €
24 mln €
Source: Ernst & Young – Assobiotec, BioInItaly Report 2014
Bioeconomy in Italy
and EU
Production value: 1200 billion euro in EU5…
Production value of bioeconomy in Europe
(Million euro, 2011)
Italy
Germany
France
UK
Spain
EU5
52,419
50,760
86,409
30,310
45,747
265,644
49,618
45,730
78,813
27,162
n.d.
n.d.
Forestry
690.7
4,560
5,475
1,574
n.d.
n.d.
Fishery
2,110
470
2,121
1,574
n.d.
n.d.
154,185
89,372
105,051
643,143
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery of which:
Agriculture
Food
123,165
171,370
Wood
17,369
22,740
10,709
7,401
7,108
65,327
Paper and pulp
24,207
39,550
17,803
13,603
14,682
109,846
Bio-chemicals
19,796
56,154
28,854
13,696
13,608
132,107
Bio-economy
241,311
330,484
295,366
154,986
186,617
1,208,765
Source: our estimates on Eurostat data
12
…with a important contribution of agro-food industry in
Spain, France and Italy
Bio-economy weight on total production (%, 2011)
12,0
10,0
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery
Food
Wood
Paper and pulp
Bio-chemicals
8,0
6,6
0,74
7,6
7,1
0,76
0,74
6,0
4,0
9,8
0,92
4,8
8,1
0,8
0,72
0,5
0,8
0,6
0,8
0,44
0,4
2,0
0,0
UK
Germany
EU5
Italy
Source: our estimates on Eurostat data
13
France
Spain
Bioeconomy or
Bio(t)economy?
Industrial Biotechnology
 Industrial biotechnology has been recognized
as a key enabling technology to address the
challenges we are facing today
 Bioeconomy companies revolve entirely
around industrial biotechnology. Focus is the
development of processes and products from
renewable resources.
Global challenges and role of biotech
 Increase of world population (9 billion by 2050 with
+70% of food demand)
 Food safety and food security; functional food, new
drugs
 Post-petroleum society
 Energy from renewable sources and bioproducts
 Climate change
 Biotech crops (water-savings)
 Environmental pollution
 Bioremediation (microorganisms, bacteria, etc.)
Italy as cradle of the new Industrial
Renaissance
Renaissance, a period of great cultural
change and achievement that began in
Italy during the 14th century and lasted
until the 16th century, marking the
transition between Medieval and Early
Modern Europe
Design for a flying
machine Codex
Atlanticus f.844r is a
drawing by Leonardo
da Vinci
Italy is a country with great players in the
bioeconomy
Mater-Biotech company, entirely controlled by Novamont, represents the start-up of the
Novamont Biotechnology Platform. The BioItalia site in Adria (RO) will be converted into the
first plant in the world dedicated to the industrial production of Butandiol (BDO) from
renewable resources.
In 2012 Novamont acquired a business unit of Tecnogen at Piana di Monte Verna (Caserta),
a biotechnology research center supervised by the Sigma Tau Finanziaria SpA, that had
already been put in liquidation. Novamont objective is to integrate this important Italian
know-how in the field of Industrial Biotechnology with the research and development
programs, in order to develop new national supply chains starting from agricultural scraps
for the production of raw materials and chemical intermediates.
Proesa™ belongs to the so-called “second-generation” technologies which allow the use of
the sugars present in lignocellulosic biomass to obtain fuel and other chemicals with lower
greenhouse gas emissions and at competitive costs compared to fossil fuels (oil, natural
gas).
It is the result of an investment of over 150 million Euro, started by Biochemtex in 2006.
The Proesa™ technology was designed to use non-food biomass, like rice straw and
sugarcane bagasse. Thanks to the efficiency of the Proesa™ process, non food sugars can
be obtained at competitive costs and without incentives, thus enabling a widely spread use
of bio-products from renewable sources.
Beta Renewables announced that it won the ACHEMA 2012 Innovation Award in the
category of Biotechnology for its PROESA® technology.
The award, presented by PROCESS, honors the most innovative technologies at ACHEMA,
a major conference for the chemical engineering, environmental protection and
biotechnology industries. Over 100 companies applied for awards in ten categories.
Winners were picked according to innovation, usability, quality, efficiency and economy.
Its “aim is to work in the field of the modern biotechnologies applied to
widely used materials, with the “intention to create 100% natural
products/solutions based on renewable resources or agricultural
processing waste materials”.
 The main product of Bio-On is MINERV-PHA, a high-performance PHA
biopolymer, that is particularly suitable for injection and extrusion
methods for the production of objects. It takes the place of highly
pollutant materials such as PET, PP, PE, HDPE and LDPE.
 EuropaBio’s Most Innovative Biotech SME Award in 2014.
 Agreements with Magna International (automotive), Eridania Sadam
(biobased levulinic acid from byproducts of sugar industry) and Pizzoli
(bioplastic using waste from potato industrial process)
Spike Renewables is a recently established Company composed by scientists and
engineers from the University of Florence, Spike is member of RE-CORD Renewable
Energy Consortium for R&D.
The Company is particularly focused on bioenergy and biofuels. The technologies on which
Spike has a specific expertise are biomass thermochemical conversion (torrefaction,
pyrolysis, gasification) and biofuel processes, both first and second generation biofuels.
Spike is participating in the design of two industrial scale advanced biofuel production plants
from microalgae (under construction in Italy and Chile)
Agroils Technologies focuses on the development and commercialization of its
patent-pending process enabling the production of superior quality biofuels, animal
feed and molecules of pharmaceutical interest from drought-resistant energy crop
Jatropha curcas.
The process does not require the use of fossil based alcohols; it is modular, fully
scalable, cost competitive & environmental friendly. The company has its
headquarters in Florence, an R&D facility in California and it has installed its first
pilot plant in Dominican Republic, where it produces Biodiesel from Jatropha and
waste vegetable oils collected from local restaurants and fast-foods.
Sacom uses biological organisms to solve environmental problems such as
contaminated soil or groundwater.
Sacom was founded in 1981 to distribute agricultural products in the regional
market. Since 1992 its activity has been focused on the production of fertilizers
and products for agriculture.
After the acquisition of ELEP S.p.A. subsidiary, the production has also been
extended to Green Biotechnologies for agricultural use like microorganisms and
mycorrhizae. Today Sacom’s core business is Green Biotechnology for agricultural
use and fertilizers production and marketing.
Chemistry and Biotechnology
Industrial Biotech company which are partners of Italian Chemical Industry:
Novozymes (DK)
Beta Renewables 20% of shares and Cellic enzyme
Genomatica (USA)
Novamont (JV Mater Biotech) bioBDO (butanediol)
Genomatica (USA)
Versalis biobutadiene from non food biomass engineering organisms fermentation
Yulex (USA)
Versalis (and Pirelli) guayule-based biorubber extraction technology
Conclusions
 WITHOUT BIOTECHNOLOGY THERE IS NO BIOECONOMY
 THE BIOECONOMY IS A REALITY IN ITALY AND A GREAT
OPPORTUNITY TO RETURN TO GROWTH, RECONCILING
ECONOMIC GROWTH, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, NEW HIGHSKILLED JOBS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY.
 ITALY HAS EXCELLENT ENTREPRENEURS AND RESEARCHERS.
IN THE INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY SECTOR ITALY IS DOING
WELL
 WE NEED A STRATEGIC NATIONAL PLAN ON BIOECONOMY
a. Agrofood Activities
b. Marine & Maritime Activities
c. Biorefineries
d. Domestic and non-domestic wastes used as resources
e. Transformation of biological materials from algal cultures and
microrganisms
See you in Lodi at IFIB 2015
(24-25 September 2015)
www.ifib2015.talkb2b.net
@assobiotec
Mario Bonaccorso
www.assobiotec.it
[email protected]
GREEN Biotech

Green biotech covers a number of modern
techniques with various potential applications,
ranging from improving specific plant varieties
to checking the origin and quality of food, and
extracting bioactive substances which are
available in nature only to a limited extend

Nowadays, more than ever, growing the
agricultural production in a sustainable manner,
without increasing cultivated land, preserving
biodiversity and reducing water consumption,
chemical input and greenhouse emission is felt
as a tangible need

The introduction of the new techniques of
genetic engineering have drastically changed
the perspective of improving the productivity
and the quality of a number of plant varieties,
fully respecting the sustainability and the quality
of the entire food chain
WHITE Biotech

White biotech makes an increasingly important contribution to the
development of a sustainable biobased economy, by using enzymes
and micro-organisms to obtain innovative products in the chemistry,
paper, textiles and energy sectors

White biotech could also provide new chances to the chemical
industry by allowing easy access to building blocks and materials not
easily accessible before, and have a considerable impact in the
production of biofuels and biopolymers, by using biomass as an
alternative to fossil resources