Italy’s Eni partnering to expand global renewables production

As part of Eni SPA’s long-term integrated strategy to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its operations by 2050 in line with the global energy transition, recently established subsidiary Eni Sustainable Mobility SPA (ESM) is partnering with operators abroad to increase the Italian firm’s production share of renewable transportation fuels.

Eni first began producing biofuels in 2014 by processing vegetable oils and biomass waste into renewable diesel, or hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) diesel, following conversion of its former 80,000-b/d Venice refinery at Porto Marghera, Italy. Since then, the operator has remained the country’s sole HVO biofuels producer and become Europe’s second largest via ongoing transformations of its conventional Italian refining operations, including a mix of proposed grassroots and expansion projects to grow in-country renewables production capacity.

In second-half 2022 and early 2023, the operator signed agreements with international partners to collaborate on development of grassroots biorefineries in Malaysia and the US as part of its plan to ensure wider availability of renewables-based transportation fuels globally as a means of helping to meet both its corporate and customers’ decarbonization and sustainability goals.

In addition to presenting an overview of Eni’s newly formed partnerships for renewable fuels production abroad, this article discusses the operator’s current plans for further manufacturing of sustainable transportation fuels within its existing and evolving Italian refining system.

US entrance

In mid-February 2023, ESM entered definitive agreements with PBF Energy Inc. to partner in a 50-50 joint venture (JV) for a new biorefinery co-located and already under construction by the US operator at subsidiary Chalmette Refining LLC’s 185,000-b/d dual-train coking refinery in Chalmette, St. Bernard Parish, La. (Fig. 1).

To be operated by the JV’s newly formed St. Bernard Renewables LLC (SBR), the biorefinery includes a new on site pretreatment unit to enable upgrading of about 1.1 million tonnes/year (tpy) of renewable materials such as soybean oil, corn oil, and other biogenically derived fats and oils into feedstocks for an idled, conventional hydrocracking unit retrofitted with the Eni-Honeywell UOP LLC codeveloped proprietary Ecofining process technology. The revamped hydrocracker will be able to produce 20,000 b/d of renewable diesel.

As part of the JV agreement—which remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals—ESM will contribute capital totaling $835 million plus up to an additional $50 million subject to the achievement of unidentified project milestones.

While neither PBF nor Eni has confirmed a definitive timeline for finalizing the proposed strategic partnership, the companies said SBR’s biorefinery remains on schedule for startup by mid-2023.

In the meantime, PBF said it will continue to manage project execution and serve as SBR’s operator once construction is completed.

Malaysian foothold

Eni’s formation of the PBF JV follows the operator’s mid-December 2022 confirmation of an agreement with Euglena Co. Ltd. of Japan and Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) to jointly study the potential for developing and operating a biorefinery in the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in southern Peninsular Malaysia, one of the largest integrated refinery and petrochemical developments in the southeast Asia Pacific.

As of yearend 2022, the companies were carrying out technical and economic feasibility assessments for the proposed biorefining project.

To be located adjacent to Petronas’ existing 300,000-b/d integrated conventional refinery and petrochemical installations in PIC, the planned biorefinery would have a flexible configuration to maximize production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) , as well as HVO diesel for on-road vehicles, diesel-powered trains, and marine transportation, based on fluctuating market conditions.

As currently proposed, the biorefinery would be equipped with Ecofining technology to process about 650,000 tpy of raw, renewable materials to produce up to 12,500 b/d of biofuels, namely SAF, HVO, and bionaphtha. The potential partners said renewable feedstocks sourced for the plant would not compete with those in the food chain but include materials such as used vegetable oils, animal fats, waste from the processing of vegetable oils, and other possible biomass (e.g., microalgae oils).

PIC’s strategic location also would allow the biorefinery to leverage the site’s integrated, existing utilities and logistics, providing easy access to major international shipping lanes to enable global delivery of sustainable products to meet rising demand, Eni said.

With a final investment decision (FID) due in early 2023, the planned biorefinery, if approved, would be targeted for completion by 2025, the companies said.

Italian operations

Even as it executes preliminary steps to invest in production of renewable fuels in destinations abroad, Eni’s plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 remain focused on a decarbonization pathway that aims to reduce emissions generated throughout the entire products life cycle at its domestic operations in Italy.

In October 2022, Eni launched a feasibility study to evaluate the potential of building a new biorefinery at its conventional 84,000-b/d refinery in Livorno, Tuscany, on Italy’s northwestern coast (Fig. 2).

The feasibility study will examine construction of three new plants for production of HVO biofuel at Livorno as part of Eni’s goal of securing the site’s future as a production and employment hub.

The Livorno transformation project—which would initially involve locating a new biorefinery inside the existing traditional crude refinery—specifically would include construction of:

• A biogenic feedstock pretreatment unit to transform waste raw materials, residues, and waste resulting from the processing of vegetable products and oils from crops that do not compete with the food chain into renewable feedstock.
• A 500,000-tpy plant for production of SAF based on Ecofining technology.
• A plant for producing hydrogen from methane gas.

With design of the three new Livorno plants scheduled for completion by 2023, construction on the biorefining project could be under way by 2025, Eni said.

To be reviewed by local institutions and trade unions within the framework of a participatory and inclusive industrial relations model, the proposed Livorno renewables transformation plan forms an important part of Eni’s ongoing decarbonization strategy, continuing its previous co-siting of renewables and traditional plants to help meet Scope 3 emission reduction targets.

Renewable fuel goals

If approved, the Livorno biorefinery would become Eni’s third refinery-to-renewables location following transformations of the Venice refinery at Porto Marghera and 105,000-b/d Gela refinery on the southern coast of Sicily into biorefineries in 2014 and 2019, respectively.

Alongside starting SAF production via coprocessing of used cooking oils (UCO) with conventional crude at its 104,000-b/d Taranto refinery in southeast Italy, Eni also began producing 10,000 tpy of SAF in 2022 from the Livorno refinery using a feedstock of Eni Biojet, a biocomponent Eni produces from waste products such as UCO or fats using Ecofining technology at its biorefineries in Gelaand Porto Marghera. Because it is 100% biogenic, SAF produced from Eni Biojet can be combined with conventional jet fuel up to as much as 50%.

At its Venice renewables plant, which has a current bio-based feedstock processing capacity of about 400,000 tpy, Eni plans to execute an upgrade that, from 2024, will increase processing capacity to 600,000 tpy to enable production of 420,000 tpy of HVO biofuels (Fig. 3). A project also remains under way at the Gela biorefinery—which processes 750,000 tpy of bio-based feedstocks—to further expand Eni Biojet production by 2024, which will allow the operator to expand SAF production from a feedstock of 100% renewable raw materials by 2025.

As of October 2022, Eni ceased using palm oil as a renewable feedstock at its Gela and Venice refineries ahead of the deadline set by European regulations for 2023. In its place, the operator has increased processing of waste and residue feedstocks (e.g., UCOs, frying oils, animal fats, vegetable oil-processing waste) and other advanced by-product feedstocks (e.g., waste oils, bio-oils from lignocellulosic waste).

Currently equipped to produce an overall 1.1 million tpy of biofuels, Eni said it plans to increase that share to 3 million tpy by 2025, 5 million tpy by 2030, and 6 million tpy by 2050.