Eni S.p.A. (Rome, Italy; www.eni.com) and CONOE, The National Consortium for the Collection and Treatment of Used Oils and Fats, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote and increase the collection of vegetable oils that will supply Eni’s Venice biorefinery and, beginning in 2018, Gela as well.
The agreement will see Eni’s refineries in Italy capitalize on a national energy resource by creating high-quality biofuels from used vegetable oils.
CONOE will invite all Consortium regeneration companies to supply Eni with used oil, which Eni will in turn use as feedstock for its biorefinery in Venice. The Venice plant is the first refinery in the world to be converted into a biorefinery, and has the capacity to transform organic raw materials into high quality biofuels.
Since May 2014, the plant has produced green diesel, green naphtha and LPG and has the capacity to create jet fuel. It is currently predominantly fed by palm oil, supplied exclusively from certified sources in line with industry standards. This will be partially replaced by used vegetable oils and, soon, by oils from animal fats and so-called advanced raw materials such as algae and waste, which avoids competition with the agri-food market.
Eni’s capacity to process vegetable oils once the Gela refinery begins operations in 2018 will be approximately one million metric tons per year (m.t./yr). This will give Eni the ability to acquire [all] products from CONOE oil-purchasing companies on the national market, which amounted to over 65,000 m.t. in 2016. The Consortium estimates potential savings up to 3.130 kg of CO2 equivalent per tonne of biodiesel produced and used as fuel. Water savings meanwhile correspond to 1.9 m.t. of biodiesel produced from used oils.
The agreement also envisages joint ventures between Eni and CONOE, as well as with local public administrations and public waste collection companies.