Enilive – a subsidiary of Italian energy multinational Eni – has begun production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at its Gela plant in Italy.
The 400,000 tonnes/year facility in Sicily has the capacity to meet almost one third of Europe’s estimated SAF demand this year following the implementation of the ReFuelEU Aviation regulation, according to analysis by global research and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie.
Regulation (EU) 2023/2405 requires aviation fuel providers to ensure that jet fuel supplied to aircraft operators at each airport in the European Union (EU) contains a proportion of SAF, gradually increasing – in five-year stages – from a minimum of 2% from 1 January 2025 to 70% from 2050.
Since September 2022, Enilive has signed agreements with several airlines for the supply of SAF, the company said on 22 January.
The company said it aimed to achieve a biorefining capacity of more than 5M tonnes/year by 2030 and increase SAF production to 1M tonnes/year by 2026, with further potential to double production by 2030.
These targets would be supported by ongoing projects at the Venice biorefinery and the construction of new biorefineries in Malaysia and South Korea, Enilive said.
The company said its Gela biorefinery has the capacity to process 736,000 tonnes/year of biomass, primarily derived from waste and residual feedstocks such as used cooking oil, animal fat and by-products from vegetable oil processing.
Further investments at the plant would enable the processing of waste and residues feedstocks into hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), Enilive said.
By 2026, the SAF plant in Porto Marghera, in the Venice biorefinery, would also be operational and, by 2030, other plants would be commissioned in Italy and elsewhere, Enilive CEO Stefano Ballista said.
According to its website, Eni is active in the natural gas and oil sectors, as well as the co-generated electricity and renewables sectors.
Through its subsidiary Enilive, Eni is a leading HVO producer in Europe and globally and operates multi-fuel service stations and biorefineries in Italy and overseas.
