Eni’s bio-refineries at the MIMIT exhibition

From 23 November until March 2025, the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT) is hosting the exhibition “Italy of Patents: Successful Inventions and Innovations” at its headquarters in Palazzo Valentini on Via Veneto in Rome. The exhibition celebrates the 140th anniversary of the establishment of the Italian Patent and Trademark Office. The exhibition celebrates the talent of Italy’s inventors, who, in keeping with tradition, contribute to developing ideas and projects that bring about significant change. In this context, we present our patent for converting traditional refineries into bio-refineries. 

The exhibition is divided into seven thematic sections, offering an overview of patents related to mobility, infrastructure, renewable energy, agriculture, sea, space and manufacturing. Each section presents three categories of inventions: 

• The roots of invention, featuring historical patents from the 19th century through to the 1980s
• The branches of invention, focused on patents currently in use for industrial development
• The buds of invention, dedicated to innovations that will shape the future of Italy and its industries.

At the exhibition, we present our patent for converting a traditional refinery into a bio-refinery by transforming existing plants into HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) production plants. The bio-refinery operates with a production process that treats biogenic raw materials, including vegetable oils, animal fat and used cooking oils, to produce biofuels, primarily HVO. The main strength of the patent lies in its method for reusing parts of older plants under the perspective of industrial redevelopment. This enables biofuels to be produced with the same efficiency as in a newly built plant, but at a lower cost. By applying this patent, we converted the Venice refinery into a bio-refinery in 2014, marking the world’s first example of such a transformation. In 2019 we applied this method to convert the plants at the Gela refinery. 

At Enilive, our company dedicated to mobility products and services, bio-refineries, we use the Ecofining™, technology, developed in collaboration with Honeywell-UOP, which contributes to the decarbonization of mobility by producing biofuels from renewable raw materials (in compliance with Directive 2018/2001, also known as ‘REDII’). These biofuels are suitable for use in road, air, and maritime transport. Many service stations now offer HVOlution, Enilive’s first diesel biofuel produced entirely from renewable feedstocks.

The Ecofining™ technology is also used at the Chalmette bio-refinery (Louisiana, USA), which Enilive operates in a joint venture with PBF Energy and will be used by new Enilive bio-refineries in Italy and around the world.

Also featured in the exhibition are the Hoop® patent from Versalis and the Mater - Bi patent from Novamont. The first focuses on transforming post-consumer mixed plastics from recycling into raw material for producing new polymers, complementing mechanical recycling. Versalis has begun constructing a demonstration plant in Mantua based on the Hoop® technology.

The second, Mater - Bi, is an innovative family of biodegradable and compostable bioplastics produced wholly or in part from biomass and developed through thirty years of research and innovation, balancing product quality and performance with an efficient use of resources. Mater - Bi products are used across various sectors, from agriculture to packaging, large-scale retail, and waste separation.