By Michele Brambilla - October 17, 2022

The invention of a small chemical company in the province of Reggio Emilia makes all the viruses and bacteria that rest on the surfaces inert. Thus Gianluca Falleti's company for 2022 and 2023 is the first in Italy in its sector for economic growth and the fourth in Europe

End of February 2020. On a plane that is returning from Barcelona to Italy there are three people: in the sense of three in all. Only three passengers because, even if the measures to close everything have not yet taken place, the world is already coming to a halt. We come across words and acronyms hitherto unknown to almost everyone, and then in other words obsolete, and then still others removed: coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2, Covid-19, lockdown, Ffp2, red zones, oximeter, hydroxychloroquine, epidemic, pandemic. We discover a feeling that not even our grandparents in wartime had known, accustomed as they were to the wretched life: we get to know fear. Collective fear. And what is scarier than what is new and unknown? The virus is more unknown than bombs, the Spanish and the plague are memories of past generations. Will the world end? Will we die out? We are all thinking of this as that plane returns to Italy loaded with only three passengers.

One of these three who return from Barcelona is called Gianluca Falleti, at that moment he is 44 years old, he was born in Sassuolo and is the owner of a small company he founded in 2000: Nanoprom Chemicals. Five employees, a beautiful headquarters in the industrial area of ​​Casalgrande, in the province of Reggio Emilia, in the Sant’Antonino district, on the border with the Sassuolo ceramic district. In short, we are in one of those corners of the peninsula that make our GDP soar.

The company produces very thin glass that is "doped" with various materials to be adapted to the most sophisticated technological devices; does cold vitrification; invents and produces the "lightest" paints in the world. A Formula 1 single-seater, for example, is painted with 250 grams if matte and 300 grams if glossy. A Curti di Castel Bolognese helicopter once needed eight kilos of paint, now 800 grams of the product designed and supplied by Nanoprom are enough. Very light glasses and paints: for a drone it went from 17 to 3.4 kilograms. And what can such a company do against Covid?

"On that plane", says Falleti, "I was thinking about what I could do to help. In Barcelona I had participated in the F1 tests and presented some plastics with our paints; they are like films that are used to color and protect cars during races, to prevent dust from adhering to the body, to cushion the impacts with anything that may come up from the track.

"So I thought: I make a paint to apply to another film that protects against viruses and bacteria. But I realized that it was infeasible from a bureaucratic point of view: too many certifications were needed. I have not given up, because I try to never stop when faced with a difficulty. I invested 330,000 euros to create a staff that would invent something to secure homes, offices and schools. And I have to thank the Region, which helped me with € 70,000 ”.

And this is how BV-Stop was born: the first anti Covid paint in the world. To be precise: anti-all-viruses, anti-all-bacteria, anti-mold. "It is an invisible, transparent paint. It can be sprayed on all paintable surfaces but also on fabrics. To understand: even on an armchair, on a pillow, on a bed. You can't see it and it has no odors, on the contrary it eliminates the odors caused by bacteria. Thirty square meters can be protected with one liter ”.

But how does it work? "After thirty minutes the virus that falls on a BV-Stop painted surface becomes 99.9 percent inert, and the bacteria are destroyed." How can you be sure? “For £ 6,700 I had a light-balanced lamp made in the UK which, with a blue beam, allows you to see where the bacteria are, where they can be and where the paint has already passed. In this way, the level of protection is checked ”. How long does this protection last? “About five years. And if it lasts less, you can go over the paint ”.

The BV-Stop has been on the market for a month. The first buyer was the Municipality of Casalgrande, which protected its Registry Office with this magic spray. Schools and company canteens have also ordered it. A large Turin hospital is evaluating it. For now, this paint is unique in the world: last year an application was made for the patent and there are no reports of objections, which is considered a good sign. Meanwhile, the company has grown from five to nine employees and turnover has risen to two million and seven hundred thousand euros a year. According to the Financial Times ranking, the small Nanoprom Chemicals of Casalgrande, province of Reggio Emilia, is the first Italian chemical company and fourth in Europe for economic growth for 2022 and 2023.

In short, this is a story of Italian genius. A story of those "how to turn a crisis into an opportunity". But if you pronounce this phrase Falleti strikes you with his eyes.

"I did not use Covid to make money or to grow the company, I assure you. My father-in-law died of Covid. And in the face of this planetary tragedy I thought if in my small way I could lend a hand, if I could invent something. I was wondering: can I really do nothing? Are we really powerless in the face of this tiny, invisible enemy? What can I do to help? When the news of the first lockdown arrived I was skiing in the mountains. I remember everyone's sense of terror. I felt a huge emptiness. I have two children, and especially those who have children were afraid.

“When we developed the anti-Covid paint I wanted to make sure it really worked. I had it tested by three companies and universities in three different cities: Modena, Florence, Chieti. Only when all three gave me the certification did I start… ”. To sell it? "To give it away. I told you, it has only been on the market for a month. First I donated it to the Red Cross of Sassuolo, Scandiano, Maranello and Casalgrande. They protected the ambulances with BV-Stop. Then I moved on to schools. They asked me to protect them from Covid with my paint, and I asked: how long have you not whitewashed? In a school near us, which I do not mention, they replied: since 1984. Do you realize what conditions the Italian school is in? But do you know that paints, after a few years, become carcinogenic if they are not removed and replaced? What if the old walls are not whitewashed? To those who asked me for the BV-Stop, I replied: first do the whitewash, then I pass it. And I assure you that I could have immediately earned hundreds of thousands of euros if I had ignored it, and passed my anti Covid paint on those walls last painted in 1984. Today any municipality can use European funds against Covid to have all the classrooms repainted, and then prepare for the BV-Stop.

“Making money with Covid? There are those who made them. There are many who have marched on it. This is why I started the anti-looting project here in our area. When they sold surgical masks for two or three euros each, I gave away more than one hundred thousand. And the ones I was selling, I was selling for 50 cents each, well before this was the price imposed by the state. And if a family had three children, the third had a free mask, and for the first two the price was forty cents ”.

Even on the masks the little Nanoprom has tried to innovate. “I produced masks with a particular fabric: 45 percent cellulose and 55 percent polyester. With these masks, the water is completely absorbed and the virus becomes inert in eight hours: so there is no need to incinerate them. You can throw them away in the normal trash. They gave us the Open Innovation Award of small and medium-sized enterprises, for these masks ”.

Now Falleti aims to recognize Nanoprom as a B-Corp company, that is, to be certified as a company that, in addition to pursuing profit, has high standards of social and environmental performance. "On 15 December last year, we received the patent as the only company in the world that is offering an alternative to the use of electroplating, which forces us to dispose of it as special waste. We have launched the Nalucoat project, which means using, instead of electroplating, another technology and materials that can be 100% recycled. Our business is in research and development: companies come to us with requests, and we study how to help them. We work with Formula 1 and Moto Gp, with boating, with drones, with everything: from submarines to satellites ”.

Will the magic paint work? Will it really eliminate Covid, and all the other viruses, and all the bacteria, and all the bad smells in homes, offices, factories, hospitals, cars? Will the patent arrive that will certify yet another Italian miracle? Meanwhile, this is a story of Italian genius. And where does our genius come from? Pupi Avati, a great director, says of having suffered and knowing how to react. “I have been orphaned by both parents since I was thirteen,” says Falleti. "As a boy, I was an insurer, delivered pizzas and washed cars. I tried to sleep secretly in the bathrooms of the insurance companies. But when I was 21 I didn't buy a car: I bought myself a house ”.

We're about to go out. She asks us: "Do you need to go to the bathroom?" And why not, at my age. "Here, then I'll show you what happens before and after using a bathroom". Then she enters with her magic lantern, which by lighting up in blue shows us where the bacteria are, where there is the protection of her anti-virus and anti-bacteria paint, and where it still needs to be passed. He is happy as a child. Why did he come up with something to make money? Anyone who knows these entrepreneurs knows that it is not the gain (which it takes, and how, and it is right) that makes those who undertake a work happy. It is the feeling that something new has been done, it is the feeling that something useful for others has been done. "What I told you is 5 percent of what this company did," she tells us as she accompanies us to the parking lot. Her company is among those classified in the “Leader of growth 2022” category drawn up by Il Sole 24 Ore, with a growth rate of 54.76 percent.

Here, as long as there are people like this, just talk about a finished country. Stop crying.

[Source: https://www.ilfoglio.it/]