On October 31, in the inviting city of Milan, at the "Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche (Institute of Chemical Sciences and Technologies) "Giulio Natta" (SCITEC) of the National Research Council (CNR), the internal meeting in the middle of the 3rd year of the LEVANTE project took place. During the session, the activities carried out in the first six months of the third year were presented and discussed. In particular, the Principal Investigator Claudia Antonetti (UNIPI) along with the other scientific unit supervisors, Nicola Scotti (CNR-SCITEC-MI), Tommaso Tabanelli (UNIBO), Vincenzo Russo (UNINA) and Raffaele Cucciniello (UNISA) showed and highlighted the achieved results and outlined the future targets planned for the project's conclusion. In details, Claudia Antonetti, in addition to the presentation of the project overview, showed the results about “Biomass-derived acid catalysts and their use for the synthesis of diphenolic acid”, Nicola Scotti presented the performed research activity dealing with “Design of Zr-based mixed oxides for the Catalytic Hydrogen Transfer of levulinate esters in batch”, then Tommaso Tabanelli described the outcomes about “The Catalytic Hydrogen Transfer of levulinate esters with ethanol in the gas-phase: before and after the Levante project”, later Vincenzo Russo showed the results about “Ketals Synthesis: from reaction kinetics to a flow chemistry approach” and finally Raffaele Cucciniello focused his presentation on “LCA Evaluation as a tool to assess the sustainability of LEVANTE processes”. Valuable contributions to the success of the LEVANTE project were also made by the young researchers, Benedetta Bertini, Luca Visentin, Domenico Licursi, Rosa Turco and Rosa Vitiello, all of them involved in the project, and all the obtained results will be published as soon as possible. Furthermore, during the meeting, two working groups of the CNR-SCITEC Institute exhibited the performed research activities about sustainability, advanced chemistry and materials for energy applications. The oral presentations were performed by Dr. Gianluca Ottolina, the first one about “Biorefinery and (bio)waste/byproduct valorization”, and by Dr. Francesca Villafiorita-Monteleone and Dr. Vladimiro Dal Santo, the second one about “Catalytic and biocatalytic transformations towards energy vectors”, making a significant contribution to the discussion. It was an important occasion of scientific discussion and improvement for all participants. See you at the next meeting!
