GELA (CALTANISSETTA) (ITALPRESS) – Enilive announces the startup of the first plant dedicated to the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) at the biorefinery in Gela, Sicily.Production started in recent days and the plant has a capacity of 400 thousand tons/year, equal to almost one-third of the expected demand for SAF in Europe in 2025 as a result of the entry into force of ReFuelEU Aviation. Indeed, Regulation (EU) 2023/2405 requires aviation fuel suppliers to ensure that jet fuel made available to aircraft operators at every airport in the European Union contains SAF quotas. SAF will have to be placed on the market in increasing quantities according to the following trajectory: 2 percent minimum from January 1, 2025, and an increase in the quota every five years (6 percent from 2030, 20 percent from 2035, 34 percent from 2040, 42 percent from 2045) until it reaches 70 percent from 2050.Enilive has entered into agreements with several airlines to supply SAF from September 2022, thanks to the first productions realized in synergy between the Enilive biorefinery in Gela and other Eni plants from waste feedstock. By 2030, Enilive plans to increase its biorefining capacity to more than 5 million tons/year and to increase the optionality of SAF production to 1 million tons/year by 2026, with a potential doubling by 2030, thanks in part to new projects underway at the Venice biorefinery and the construction of new biorefineries in Malaysia and South Korea.The Gela biorefinery has a processing capacity of 736 thousand tons/year of biomass, mainly from waste feedstocks and waste such as waste edible oils, animal fats, and by-products of vegetable oil processing. The innovative production of SAF in Gela was made possible through plant modifications, particularly of the isomerization unit to which a reactor and product separation section were added, and of the tank farm and logistics facilities. Investments to upgrade the feedstock pre-treatment section with the construction of a third degumming line will also be completed soon, which will further expand the type of waste feedstocks and residues to be transformed into Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) biofuels. “The plants and technologies we are developing are further confirmation of Enilive’s strategy, which is among the leaders in the production of HVO biofuels, characterized by a strong growth in the supply of increasingly sustainable products. Eni started investing in this sector more than a decade ago,” commented Stefano Ballista, CEO of Enilive, “and Enilive will be among the first companies in the world to produce significant quantities of SAF. By 2026, the plant for the production of sustainable aviation fuel in Porto Marghera, in the Venice biorefinery, will also be operational, and by 2030 new plants in Italy and abroad will be added.”.- photo Eni press office -(ITALPRESS).
