U.S. patent granted for the process to synthesize 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from saccharides, naming Catia Bastioli as inventor.
On March 1, 2016, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the patent for "Process for the synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural from saccharides" to Novamont S.p.A., naming Catia Bastioli as an inventor. This grant formalized legal protection for the process first filed in August 2014, confirming its novelty and industrial applicability.
The granted patent covered methods for converting simple sugars into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a versatile renewable platform chemical with applications ranging from biofuels to polymer precursors such as furan-based plastics. Securing this patent strengthened Novamont's intellectual property position in the emerging bio-based chemicals sector, an area of increasing strategic importance as industries sought alternatives to fossil-fuel-derived feedstocks.
For Bastioli, this grant represented a continuation of a decades-long inventive career that began with starch-based bioplastics and had, by the mid-2010s, expanded into the broader landscape of green chemistry and biorefinery technologies. It underscored her enduring influence in shaping the technical and commercial trajectory of Europe's bioeconomy.