(AGENPARL) – mer 22 gennaio 2025 Enilive begins SAF production at its plant in Gela (Sicily),
capable of meeting one third of Europe’s demand
Gela (CL, Italy), 22 January 2025 – Enilive announces the commissioning of its first plant to
produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) at the Gela biorefinery, in Sicily.
Production has started at the plant, which has a capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year,
representing almost a third of the expected European SAF demand in 2025*, following the
implementation of the ReFuelEU Aviation regulation. Regulation (EU) 2023/2405 requires
aviation fuel providers to ensure that jet fuel supplied to aircraft operators at each airport in
the European Union contains a proportion of SAF. The required proportion of SAF will
increase over five year increments from a minimum 2% from 1 January 2025 to 6% from
2030, 20% from 2035, 34% from 2040, 42 % from 2045, until reaching 70% from 2050.
Since September 2022, Enilive has signed agreements with several airlines for the supply
of SAF, thanks to the initial production achieved through synergies between the Gela Enilive
biorefinery and other Eni facilities, using waste-based feedstocks. Enilive aims to increase
its biorefining capacity to over 5 million tonnes per year by 2030 and enhance its optionality
for SAF production to 1 million tonnes per year by 2026, with further potential to double
production by 2030. These targets will be supported by ongoing projects at the Venice
biorefinery and the construction of new biorefineries in Malaysia and South Korea.
The Gela biorefinery has the capacity to process 736,000 tonnes of biomass per year, which
is primarily derived from waste and residual feedstocks such as used cooking oils, animal
fat and by-products from vegetable oil processing. The innovative SAF production in Gela
has been made possible by plant modifications, in particular to the isomerisation unit, which
has been equipped with a reactor and a product separation section, as well as upgrades to
the tank farm and logistics infrastructure. Investments to improve the feedstock pretreatment
section, including the construction of a third degumming line, are nearing completion. These
improvements will further enable the diversification of waste and residues feedstocks that
can be converted into HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) biofuels.
“The plants and technologies that we are developing position Enilive as a leader in the
production of HVO biofuels and confirms the company’s strategy, distinguished by a strong
growth in offering increasingly sustainable products”, said Stefano Ballista, Enilive’s Chief
Executive Officer. “Eni started investing in this field over a decade ago and Enilive will be
among the first companies in the world to produce significant quantities of SAF. By 2026,
the SAF plant in Porto Marghera, in the Venice biorefinery, will also be operational, and by
2030 other plants will be commissioned in Italy and abroad.”
* Source: Wood Mackenzie
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Web site: http://www.eni.com