HOUSTON, TEXAS (Editors at Energy Analytics Institute, 22.Jan.2025) — Enilive announced commissioning of its first plant to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at the Gela biorefinery, in Sicily, Italy.
Production has started at the plant, Eni said 22 Jan. 2025 in an official statement.
The plant has a capacity of 0.4 million tonnes per year (Mt/y), which is almost a third of the expected European SAF demand in 2025, according to Wood Mackenzie, following the implementation of the ReFuelEU Aviation regulation.
“Eni started investing in this field over a decade ago and Enilive will be among the first companies in the world to produce significant quantities of SAF. By 2026, the SAF plant in Porto Marghera, in the Venice biorefinery, will also be operational, and by 2030 other plants will be commissioned in Italy and abroad,” Enilive’s CEO Stefano Ballista said in the statement.
Regulation (European Union or EU) 2023/2405 requires aviation fuel providers to ensure that jet fuel supplied to aircraft operators at each airport in the EU contains a proportion of SAF. The required proportion of SAF will increase over 5 year increments from a minimum 2% from 1 Jan. 2025 to 6% from 2030, 20% from 2035, 34% from 2040, 42 % from 2045, until reaching 70% from 2050, Eni said.
Since Sep. 2022, Enilive has signed agreements with several airlines for the supply of SAF, thanks to the initial production achieved through synergies between the Gela Enilive biorefinery and other Eni facilities, using waste-based feedstocks.
Enilive aims to increase its biorefining capacity to over 5 Mt/y by 2030 and enhance its optionality for SAF production to 1 Mt/y by 2026, with further potential to double production by 2030. These targets will be supported by ongoing projects at the Venice biorefinery and the construction of new biorefineries in Malaysia and South Korea, according to Eni.
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