NATURAL POWER LIFE is a project funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme to support strategic initiatives in the fields of nature, environment, and climate. Its goal is to contribute to the implementation of the European Green Deal, including targets such as climate neutrality by 2050, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and the energy transition.

Coordinated by Versalis, the project aims at sustainably replacing hazardous herbicides and biocides with pelargonic acid-based products produced from vegetable sources, thus reducing the impact of synthetic herbicides and biocides on the environment.

Specifically, the project focuses on introducing two broad-spectrum herbicides based on pelargonic acid to the European market:
 

• Sunpower®: A broad-spectrum herbicide for urban and industrial areas, already available in Italy and undergoing trials in various sectors.
• Ager-Bi: A family of herbicides specifically optimised for agricultural use. Thanks to their proven efficacy in controlling weeds and suckers across a broad spectrum of crops—including grapevine, hazelnut, olive, and pome fruits—as well as in the pre-harvest desiccation of potatoes, seed alfalfa, peanuts, and the phytoregulation of tobacco, plans are underway to explore their use in additional cropsand expand its reach across Europe. The pelargonic acid used in Sunpower and Ager-Bi is obtained from vegetable oils through a first-of-its-kind process that does not use ozone.

The project is also developing a new broad-spectrum biocide, again based on pelargonic acid.

Novamont, a Versalis-Eni Company, is one of the project partners, along with AGRINET, RE-CORD, and Teraglobus.