We built our first biorefinery in Porto Marghera, Venice by converting old plants thanks to technologies developed by our Research Centres. Renewal has also involved the other production cycles, making them more and more energy transition oriented. With this approach, we have increased the installed capacity of renewables and are developing a hub for plastic recycling.
The plan to transform the Porto Marghera industrial site was launched many years ago and involves all the activities of Eni and its subsidiaries Enilive, Eni Rewind, Versalis and Plenitude. The planned activities will help us implement through new industrial projects the energy transition, the reduction of CO2 emissions and the development of the circular economy also applied to energy. The transformation plan involves investments of around 790 million euros and re-employment of the staff.
Activity start date: 2014 - present
Enilive
Eni Rewind
Versalis
Plenitude
The bio-refinery in Venice produces quality biofuel (HVO - Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) from raw biogenic materials. At the time of its opening in 2014, it was the world's first example of fully converting a traditional refinery into a biorefinery. The process is based on our proprietary EcofiningTM technology. The biorefinery is mainly (about 85%) fuelled by waste raw materials, such as waste cooking oil, animal fats and residues from the agro-food industry for the production of biofuels, HVO diesel, bio-LPG, bio-jet and bio-naphtha for the chemical chain.
In Venice, a plant for the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is awaiting the necessary permits. The processed bio-components, after distillation, will produce Eni Biojet, a fuel that can be blended with conventional products.
The former petrochemical plant in Gela is considered a Site of National Priority, i.e., an area requiring special remediation work as a result of operations carried out over decades by several companies. The environmental reclamation of the site is the responsibility of Eni Rewind, Eni's environmental company. The first activities began in the 1990s with the securing of decommissioned plants and the systematic soil and water testing campaign. Subsequently, the actual reclamation activity began, which has already been completed for some areas, while for the remainder it is in progress. As part of the Porto Marghera redevelopment plan, Eni Rewind presented a project for the drying and energy exploitation of residues from civil sewage (sewage sludge) using the most advanced currently available technologies.
Descrizione: The transformation of production activities in Porto Marghera also involves Versalis, Eni's chemical company, through new industrial initiatives based on the circular economy model. The flagship project foresees the creation of a hub for the advanced mechanical recycling of post-consumer plastics. During the initial phase, the aim is to obtain packaging and building products completely from expanded and compacted polystyrene waste, selected from industry and trade. Then, a plant will be built for the advanced mechanical recycling of sorted plastic waste, obtained from separate waste collection, particularly polystyrene and high-density polyethylene. In addition, the first plant in Italy will be built for the production of isopropyl alcohol, an ingredient in disinfectants, detergents and many other products that is currently imported in its entirety. In parallel, we are investing in strengthening the logistics hub to further increase its flexibility.
In Porto Marghera, through Plenitude, we are completing two photovoltaic plants with an installed capacity of 3.55 MW and 2.7 MW. We built them in areas that were once used for industrial processes and already undergoing environmental redevelopment by Eni Rewind. This way, in addition to providing renewable energy to the production site, we have optimised the use of the production area by reusing brownfield sites that could not accommodate any other types of activities.
We are awaiting the last authorisations to start building the new renewable hydrogen production (Steam Reforming) plant. The hydrogen will be delivered by pipeline to the new Eniline service station dedicated to refuelling the buses of the Venice Mobility Company with hydrogen. The project, which was awarded PNRR funding for Hydrogen experimentation for road transport is currently being planned.
The data were selected from those contained in our official documents.
the biorefinery’s current processing capacity
isopropyl alcohol production at full capacity
recycled content in the future production of polystyrene
the biorefinery’s current processing capacity
isopropyl alcohol production at full capacity
recycled content in the future production of polystyrene