Eni is poised to begin construction on its proposed project to convert an idled conventional crude oil refinery in Livorno, Tuscany, into Italy’s third biorefinery, pending final regulatory approvals.
The company is awaiting final government clearance for the transformation of its 84,000-b/d crude oil refinery in Livorno on Italy’s northwestern coast. Once approved, it will become the country’s third biorefinery (OGJ Online, Oct. 18, 2022).
Following initial preparatory works on-site earlier this year, formal construction will commence as soon as Italy’s Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MOEES)—in consultation with local authorities—issues the final single-authorization and building permit, Eni announced on Sept. 10.
While no specific timeline for receiving the permit has been provided, this final regulatory step follows prior approvals from the MOEES, Italy’s Ministry of Culture, the Italian National Institute of Health, and Tuscany’s regional government. These approvals were granted based on an environmental impact assessment submitted by Eni in November 2022.
Eni gave the green light for the project in January 2024. The transformation will involve the construction of three new biorefining plants designed to process biogenic feedstocks—mainly vegetable waste and residues—to produce hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) diesel, HVO naphtha, and bio-LPG (OGJ Online, Jan. 29, 2024).
As part of Eni’s broader decarbonization strategy, aimed at achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, this project will contribute to increasing its subsidiary Enilive SPA’s biorefining capacity from the current 1.65 million tpy to over 5 million tpy by 2030. The new plants will feature:
- A biogenic feedstock pretreatment unit to process waste materials, residues, and by-products from non-food crops into renewable feedstock.
- A 500,000-tpy plant for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production, using the proprietary Ecofining technology developed by Eni and Honeywell UOP, enabling the flexible processing of 100% biofeedstocks.
- A plant for producing hydrogen from methane gas.
Formal construction is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024, with completion slated for 2026. The Livorno project is one of several biorefining ventures under development by Eni, including Enlive’s:
- Recently approved joint venture with Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) and Euglena Co. Ltd. of Japan, for the construction of a biorefinery at the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in Johor, southern Malaysia. Set to start up in the second half of 2028, this refinery will use Ecofining technology to process approximately 650,000 tpy of biofeedstocks into SAF, HVO, and bionaphtha (OGJ Online, July 26, 2024).
- Eni’s joint venture with LG Chem Ltd. for a biorefinery at LG Chem’s petrochemical complex in Daesan, South Korea. Scheduled for completion in 2026, this facility will also employ Ecofining technology to process around 400,000 tpy of biofeedstocks into SAF, HVO, and bionaphtha, pending final project approval by LG Chem (OGJ Online, Jan. 19, 2024).
- A second-phase expansion of the Venice biorefinery at Porto Marghera, Italy. Pending a final investment decision in early 2025, this expansion could add up to 600,000 tpy of capacity.
Eni, the first global operator to convert two conventional refineries into biorefineries, began producing biofuels in 2014 by converting its former 80,000-b/d Venice refinery. This was followed by the transformation of the 105,000-b/d Gela refinery on Sicily’s southern coast in 2019.