Last week Flamini announced that GF Biochemicals had become the first company in the world that can mass produce Levulinic Acid, which can replace oil in all its forms.
The firm, which is owned jointly with his partner Pasquale Granata, is the first to enter the market, worth an estimated £20billion.
GF stands for Granata-Flamini.
Levulinic Acid has several uses, from bio-fuels, to pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, plastics or even food preservatives and countless other applications. The company’s ability to mass-produce the acid could leave Flamini a very wealthy man.
GF Biochemicals was founded when Flamini left Arsenal to join AC Milan in 2008.
He became close friends with 32-year old economics graduate Granata, who shared the central midfielder’s environmental concerns.
Flamini spent millions to fund the research, find and equip a factory in Italy and run the costly trials that lasted years.
“For seven years I haven’t mentioned it to anyone. When I moved to Milan in 2008 I met Pasquale, who became close friend and we always had it in mind to do something together”, Flamini said.
“I was always close to nature and concerned about environmental issues, climate change and global warming.
“He was on the same wavelength. We were looking how we could make a contribution to the problem.
“After a while we found out about Levulinic Acid.
Levulinic Acid is a molecule identified by the US Department of Energy as one of the 12 molecules with the potential to replace petrol in all its forms.
Flamini added: “Researchers told us LA is the future and by doing research in that field we could come up with a great discovery and success”.
“We are the first company — and the only one in the world — to produce LA on an industrial scale.
“We started production this summer. It comes from wood waste or corn waste etc.”
He added: “I invested a lot of money in this. It was a big risk. But to be successful you take risks. It was a challenge”.
The company employs around 80 people in the plant and provides employment to about 400 people in total.
The plant is located in Caserta in Italy, with an office in Milan and Holland. The company wants to expand into the US soon.
Flamini continued: “We have researchers, chemists and other scientists, from France, Italy, Russia, Holland, Germany and Egypt.
“And we work closely with the famous University of Pisa — one of the most prestigious universities in Italy.
“The head of the chemistry department is one of Italy’s top scientists in LA research. She is Professor Anna Maria Raspoli Galletti and we are so grateful to her.
“We are pioneers. We are opening a new market. And it’s a market potentially worth £20bn”.
