Eni wants to build a biorefinery and recycling plant in Sicily

Eni, an Italian energy company, announced on Thursday that it has begun the environmental approval process for the transformation of its industrial site at Priolo in Sicily into a biorefinery, and a chemical recycler plant for plastics.

The Italian energy ministry has recently approved the application for the project. It will be built on the site of Eni's decommissioned ethylene plant.

Eni is implementing this move as part of its plan to revamp its chemical business. This includes reducing the exposure to petrochemicals, which are currently under pressure in Europe because of high production costs and aging plants.

The state-controlled company pledged to invest 2 billion euro ($2.3 billion) in five years for the relaunch of its losing chemical business Versalis through diversification into biofuels and plastic recycling.

The new biorefinery is expected to produce 500,000 tons of fuel per year from animal and vegetable waste. This includes diesel for transportation and SAF-biojet (biojet for aircraft) for aviation.

Priolo will be Sicily’s second biorefinery, after Gela which operates since 2019. The completion date is 2028.

The recycling plant uses a new technology called Hoop that allows mixed plastic waste to be converted into a feedstock for the production of new plastic materials that are suitable for any application, including packaging that comes in contact with food and pharmaceutical packaging.

Priolo will be the first industrial plant to use this technology after a demonstration unit was launched in Mantua, Italy in June.

(source: Reuters)