• €16 million invested in a new robotic research center in Osio Sopra
• Gas research and production activities for the agri-food, medical and environmental sectors

 

Osio Sopra (Bergamo), September 18 – The SIAD Gases of Life District was opened today within the SIAD production plant in Osio Sopra (Bergamo). The Gases of Life District is the new SIAD research center dedicated to the study and development of innovative gas mixtures and their automated and robotic production for food, environmental, medical and pharmaceutical use.

The €16 million investment made by SIAD was approved to receive benefits of € 3.5 million under the Sustainable Growth Fund, based on the Innovation Agreement between the Ministry of Economic Development, the Lombardy Region and SIAD; this was entitled: "Gaseous products for innovative therapeutic, diagnostic, food and metrological applications and related automated production, use and supply systems".

 

 As SIAD CEO Bernardo Sestini explained : “This operation confirms that SIAD is increasingly devoted to innovation and is in a position to take up the challenge of future research. Innovation, which has always been an intrinsic value of SIAD, is combined with openness to the establishment of links, some already in place, with other public and private research centers for the development of specific projects".

 

Innovation, safety, interconnection and sustainability are the main features of the new District:

• Innovation and cutting-edge laboratories: the new facility includes cutting-edge laboratory areas equipped with technologies and equipment for the production and analysis of innovative mixtures;
• High safety standards: the entire area is equipped with control, monitoring and traceability systems that guarantee the integrity and safety of the processes at all times;
• Interconnection and openness: the logic of the new laboratory includes places that encourage collaboration and meetings with external research bodies and includes spaces dedicated to testing innovative products;
• Sustainability and Sustainable Infrastructure: the District integrates high energy efficiency systems, renewable energy sources (solar panels) and intelligent management technologies, in order to minimize environmental impact.

 

The recently completed District covers an area of 2,600 m2 and is equipped with numerous laboratories and specialized research areas. The various research areas include;

 

 

1. Areas intended for research in the agri-food and medical fields

Gases present in the atmosphere have important effects on the biology of living organisms, humans, animals and plants. The aim is to understand how, in varying concentrations, these gases interact with plant or animal cells, in order to achieve beneficial effects.

To this end, the center works with institutions and research centres. In recent years, a composition has been developed in collaboration with the Mario Negri Institute that has important protective effects on neurons after a stroke.

 

2. Laboratory for the preparation and development of metrological mixtures

Researchers at the SIAD laboratory can use 400 different compounds to prepare gas mixtures with individual components, even with 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 measurement traceable to international systems. In particular, gaseous mixtures are produced with compounds with very low concentrations for environmental analyses, for uses in the automotive industry, for analyses in the petrochemical and energy fields, for the calibration of instruments to detect gaseous pollutants, and for analyses in the field of medicines. In the latter sector, these mixtures are becoming increasingly important because they can be used for analyses in the field of diagnostics.

 

3. Environmental Biology and Chemistry Laboratory

The applied research center in the environmental sector brings together 35 years of experience in wastewater purification and rectifying contaminated sites. The laboratory has developed several national and international research projects on bioaerosols, greenhouse gases, atmospheric particulates and gas microbiology. The various studies include those on the use of oxygen and ozone for the removal of micropollutants from wastewater and sludge and for the development of a technology to increase the production of methane from anaerobic biomass digesters.

 

4. 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 the  compositions required by the user.

 

 

Research has always been part of SIAD’s identity. Since the 1950s, thanks to its research activity, SIAD was the first Italian company to produce argon gas, an analyzer specifically designed to analyze the nitrogen content in the cryogenic argon produced, high-purity hydrogen for the electronics industry and, subsequently, carbon monoxide produced by a proprietary process, high purity chlorine, the production of gas used in the electronics industry such as diborane and phosphine, nitrogen monoxide, and calibration gas mixtures of which SIAD is leader in Italy and among the best producers in the world.

In 1964, SIAD opened the chemical laboratory at the Osio Sopra plant, transferring and strengthening the one at the Bergamo plant, to introduce itself to the market as an innovative company in the field of gas.

The products developed then are still offered by SIAD, which has perfected their specifications over the years, and some are still produced with the chemical processes studied at that time.
The laboratory built in the 1960s is still active and various processes are still carried out on products for which SIAD is a market leader.