SIAD, discovering the Life Gas District

Located within the group’s production hub, it is characterized by cutting-edge technologies, high standards of safety, sustainability and interconnection strong: the Gas of Life District of SIAD it is strongly oriented towards the opening towards the outside to further strengthen synergies with other public and private centers, in order to further develop research projects.

The journey through the Life Gas District

The Life Gas District covers an area of 2,600 square metres, which houses laboratories equipped with technology and equipment for the production and analysis of innovative mixtures: control, monitoring and traceability systems guarantee process safety at all times.

The District integrates energy-efficient systems, renewable energy sources (solar panels) and intelligent management technologies to minimise environmental impact.

A significant part of the SIAD Life Gas District is dedicated to automated production, starting with the production stages, passing through the setting up of the vessels and ending with the dispatch of the finished product.

Highly qualified researchers work within the District. There are three areas of interest:

Agribusiness and medical

The gases present in the atmosphere have important effects on the biology of living organisms, humans, animals and plants. Innovative gas mixtures could in the future be used to encourage the growth of vegetable crops, improve food preservation, support an increasingly sustainable agri-food industry, develop new gaseous mixtures in the pharmaceutical and medicinal industries.

To this end, the centre collaborates with organisations and research centres. In recent years, a mixture has been developed in cooperation with the Mario Negri Institute that has important protective effects at the neuronal level following ischemic events, and studies are underway with important Italian institutions and universities to improve plant cultures.

Metrology

In this laboratory, SIAD researchers are able to use more than 400 different compounds to develop gas mixtures with up to 135 individual components, even at very low concentrations. These preparations are also used as metrological references to calibrate measuring instruments and thus guarantee a measurement traceable to international systems.

In particular, gas mixtures are produced for environmental analysis, for use in the automotive industry, for analysis in the petrochemical and energy fields, for the calibration of instruments for detecting gaseous pollutants, and for analysis in the medical field. In the latter sector, these mixtures are becoming increasingly important because they can be used for analysis in the diagnostic field.

Environmental Biology and Chemistry

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

Interview with Bernardo Sestini, CEO of SIAD

The investment supported by SIAD, equal to 16 million euros, was admitted to the benefits provided by the Sustainable Growth Fund for 3.5 million on the basis of 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 systems”.

“With this operation SIAD confirms that it is a company increasingly dedicated to innovation and able to meet the challenge of future research. Innovation, which has always been a widespread value at SIAD, is combined with an openness to creating links, some already in place, with other public and private research centres for the development of concrete projects ”.

Bernardo Sestini, CEO SIAD

SIAD, a history in research

The Life Gas District once again confirms the on-site research approach that has been in SIAD’s DNA since its foundation, i.e. since Quirino and Bernardo Sestini filed the Massa Porosa patent in 1927, the first of a long series. Since that year, many innovations have been brought about through the use of gases, culminating in 2019 with the laying of the foundation stone of the Life Gas District, immediately conceived as a hub dedicated to research and experimentation in the production and application of innovative gas mixtures.

The Gas of Life District is only the last step of a long process in the field of SIAD research, strengthened since 1964 with the opening within the Osio Sopra plant of the SIAD chemical laboratory, a center for applied research in the environmental sector, born by gathering the experience of thirty years of studies on the functioning of wastewater purification and groundwater treatment plants.