It is easy to say gas. But behind the product that has become the center of attention since the war broke out in Ukraine, there is not only its use as a fuel, but there are numerous unexpected areas: fromfeed, All 'of environmental tourism, medical and pharmaceuticals.
To study and develop innovative gas mixtures and their automated and robotic production in those sectors was born Life Gas District the new research center of SIAD in the area of the Osio Sopra plant, in the province of Bergamo on an area of 2.600 square meters. SIAD is one of the main Italian chemical groups, with a 2022 turnover exceeding one billion euros, 70 thousand customers and 2.177 employees worldwide.
The company, founded in 1927, now chaired by Roberto Sestini and managed by Bernardo Sestini, has invested 16 million of euros in the new research center which has been admitted to the benefits provided by the Sustainable Growth Fund for 3,5 million based on the Innovation Agreement between the Ministry of Economic Development, the Lombardy Region and SIAD, called "Gaseous products for innovative therapeutic, diagnostic, food and metrological applications and related automated production, use and administration".
“With this operation” explains the CEO of SIAD Bernardo Sestini, “SIAD confirms that it is a company increasingly devoted to innovation and capable of taking up the challenge of future research. Innovation, which has always been a widespread value in SIAD, is combined with openness to the creation of links, some already in place, with other public and private research centers for the development of concrete projects".
What is the Gas District of life
The new structure includes spaces for laboratory cutting-edge, equipped with technologies and equipment for the production and analysis of innovative blends. The entire area is equipped with control, monitoring and traceability systems that guarantee the integrity and safety of the processes at all times. The logic of the new laboratory includes places that encourage collaboration and meeting with external research bodies and includes spaces dedicated to testing of innovative products. Furthermore, the District integrates high energy efficiency systems, renewable energy sources (solar panels) and intelligent management technologies, so as to minimize environmental impact. The Life Gas District is equipped with several specialized laboratories and research areas.
Areas intended for research in the agri-food and medical fields
I gas present in the atmosphere they have important effects on the biology of living organisms, humans, animals, plants. The objective is to understand how these gases, as their concentrations vary, interact on plant or animal cells, with the aim of obtaining beneficial effects.
Innovative gas mixtures could in the future be used to encourage the growth of vegetable crops, improve the food preservation, support an increasingly sustainable agri-food industry, develop new gaseous mixtures in the pharmaceutical and medicinal industries.
To this end, the center collaborates with institutions and research centres: in recent years it has been developed in collaboration with the Mario Negri Institute, a mixture that has important protective effects at a neuronal level following ischemic events and studies are underway with important Italian bodies and universities for the improvement of vegetable crops.
Laboratory for the preparation and development of metrological mixtures
Researchers at the SIAD laboratory can use 400 different compounds to prepare gas mixtures having the individual components present even at very low concentrations: each gas mixture can contain up to 135 components.
These preparations are also used as metrological references to calibrate measuring instruments and therefore guarantee a measure referable to international systems. In particular, gaseous mixtures with compounds at very low concentrations are produced for environmental analyses, for uses inthe automotive industry, for analyzes in the petrochemical and energy fields, for the calibration of detection instruments polluting substances gaseous, for analysis in the medicinal field. In the latter sector these mixtures are acquiring ever greater importance because they can be used for analysis in diagnostic field.
Environmental biology and chemistry laboratory
The applied research center in the environmental sector brings together 35 years of experience in waste water purification and in the remediation of contaminated sites. The laboratory has developed several national and international research projects on bioaerosols, greenhouse gases, atmospheric particulates, gas microbiology. Among the various studies developed there are also those on the use of oxygen and ozone for the removal of micropollutants from wastewater and sludge and for the development of technology to increase methane production from anaerobic biomass digesters.
Automated production
A significant part of the District is dedicated to automated production. The robotic system manages the process of filling gas mixtures into the cylinders completely autonomously: the mixtures can be made up of many components and be prepared with compositions upon user request. The automated process carries out all production phases, from preparing the containers to shipping the finished product.
