Chemical company LG Chem and Enilive – a company directly controlled by Italian multinational energy company Eni, which holds 100% of its share capital – have signed a joint venture agreement to develop and operate a new biorefinery in South Korea.
A final investment decision on the new facility, which would be built at LG Chem’s existing integrated petrochemical complex in Daesan, South Korea, was expected this year, Eni said on 19 January.
Scheduled to be completed by 2026, the biorefinery was expected to process approximately 400,000 tonnes/year of bio-feedstocks using Eni’s Ecofining technology – developed in collaboration with Honeywell UOP – and produce multiple products including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and bio-naphtha.
Biofuel production was a major part of Eni’s strategy to reach net zero emissions by 2050, Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said.
“The biorefinery project … is a key element to expand Enilive biorefining presence internationally, to raise its capacity from the current 1.65M tonnes/year to over 5M tonnes/year by 2030, and to increase the capacity of SAF production to up to 2M tonnes/year from 2030,” Descalzi added.
According to its website, Eni is active in the natural gas and oil sectors, as well as the co-generated electricity and renewables sectors, including both traditional and bio-refining and chemicals.
South Korea-based LG Chem is a leading global chemical company and is active in the petrochemicals, advanced materials and life sciences sectors.
