Bio-on and the Hera group have created a joint venture in which the bioplastic group will have 90% and the Bologna-based multiutility 10% (but with an option that will allow it to rise up to 49,9%). Thus was born Lux-On, a project that aims to produce PHAs biopolymers also using CO2 (carbon dioxide) captured from the atmosphere and producing energy without using fossil fuels.
The new technology developed by Bio-on envisages the use of carbon dioxide as a zero-cost raw material in addition to those already used up to now to produce Bio-on bioplastic: beet and sugar cane molasses, fruit and potato waste, sources of carbon in general, glycerol and used cooking oil. The use of CO2 also contributes to the reduction of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere.
The laboratories and the first Lux-on plant will be built by 2019 near the Bio-on Plants industrial plant in Castel San Pietro Terme (Bologna). It will be entirely built and designed by Bio-on technicians in collaboration with Hera, with systems for recovering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and those for producing renewable energy from sunlight.
