U.S. patent application (publication 20170233363) filed for a process to produce and isolate 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, naming Catia Bastioli as inventor.
On October 16, 2015, Novamont S.p.A. filed a U.S. patent application (later published as 20170233363) titled "Process for the production and isolation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural," with Catia Bastioli listed as one of the inventors. This filing built directly on the company's 2014 work on synthesizing HMF from saccharides, this time focusing specifically on efficient methods for isolating and purifying the compound at scale.
Isolation and purification steps are often the most technically and economically challenging aspects of converting a promising laboratory-scale green chemistry process into an industrially viable one. By addressing this bottleneck, Bastioli's team aimed to make HMF-based renewable chemical platforms more commercially competitive against traditional petroleum-derived intermediates.
This filing is part of a broader wave of research activity at Novamont during the mid-2010s focused on expanding the company's green chemistry capabilities beyond bioplastics into biorefinery products, reflecting Bastioli's vision of a fully integrated circular bioeconomy. Her continued inventive contributions during this period reinforced her reputation as one of the leading scientific minds in sustainable industrial chemistry in Europe.