Eni’s Taranto refinery producing sustainable aviation fuel

Eni SPA has started producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) via coprocessing of used cooking oils (UCO) with conventional crude at its 104,000-b/d Taranto refinery in southeast Italy.

As part of the site’s first step under Eni’s commitment to decarbonizing all its products and processes by 2050, the Taranto refinery is now blending a 0.5% share of UCO into conventional crude feedstock to produce SAF containing the 2% share of biocomponent that typically achieves more than 90% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to fuel produced from a 100% conventional crude feedstock, the operator said on Oct. 15.

While Eni did not disclose Taranto’s current SAF production capacity, the company confirmed the SAF product is now available from the refinery’s storage tanks for sale to major airlines, the first of which will be Italia Trasporto Aereo SPA.

Start of SAF production from UCO at Taranto follows Eni’s previous agreement with Azienda Multiservizi e Igiene Urbana di Taranto SPA (AMIU) for collection of UCOs, according to a Jan. 24, 2019 release from Eni.

Renewables growth

Alongside aligning with the operator’s decision to cease using palm oil as a renewable feedstock beginning in 2023, start of SAF production from UCO at Taranto aligns with the company’s broader SAF production expansion plan, which includes the start of 10,000 tonnes/year (tpy) of SAF output in 2022 from the 84,000-b/d Livorno refinery in northwestern Italy, Eni said.

The Livorno SAF project will use a feedstock of Eni Biojet, a biocomponent Eni produces from waste products such as UCO or fats using the company’s proprietary Ecofining technology at its biorefineries in Gela—on the southern coast of Sicily—and Porto Marghera, near Venice. Because it is 100% biogenic, SAF produced from Eni Biojet can be combined with conventional jet fuel up to as much as 50%, according to the operator.

Eni confirmed a project also is currently under way at the Gela biorefinery 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.

By 2050, Eni said it plans to increase its systemwide biorefining capacity to 5-6 million tpy from its current 1.1-million tpy capacity. Within 4 years, the company said it expects to double existing capacity to about 2.2 million tpy.

By 2030, Eni said it hopes to have a total biojet production capacity of at least 500,000 tpy.