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We built our first biorefinery in Porto Marghera, Venice by converting old plants thanks to technologies developed by our Research Centres. Renewal has also involved the other production cycles, making them more and more energy transition oriented. With this approach, we have increased the installed capacity of renewables and are developing a hub for plastic recycling.
The plan to transform the Porto Marghera industrial site was launched many years ago and involves all the activities of Eni and its subsidiaries Enilive, Eni Rewind, Versalis and Plenitude. The planned activities will help us implement through new industrial projects the energy transition, the reduction of CO2 emissions and the development of the circular economy also applied to energy. The transformation plan involves investments of around 790 million euros and re-employment of the staff.
Thanks to the biorefinery’s capacity of around 0.4 million tonnes per year, we can convert biofeedstocks into biofuels using Eni technology.
We carry out environmental restoration and remediation activities across various affected areas.
By implementing various technologies, we are developing a circular economy model through plastic recycling projects.
We repurpose decommissioned areas to unlock production potential by installing photovoltaic plants.
We use hydrogen as feedstock and in 2022 we opened our first service station in Venice Mestre that supplies hydrogen for mobility.
Region: Veneto
Activity start date: 2014 - present
Bioenergy
Biorefining
Chemistry
Energy from renewables
Environmental remediationThe bio-refinery in Venice produces quality biofuel (HVO - Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) from raw biogenic materials. At the time of its opening in 2014, it was the world's first example of fully converting a traditional refinery into a biorefinery. The process is based on our proprietary EcofiningTM technology. The biorefinery is mainly (about 85%) fuelled by waste raw materials, such as waste cooking oil, animal fats and residues from the agro-food industry for the production of biofuels, HVO diesel, bio-LPG, biojet and bio-naphtha for the chemical chain.
In Venice, a plant for the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is awaiting the necessary permits. The processed bio-components, after distillation, will produce biojet, a fuel that can be blended with conventional products.
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The former petrochemical plant in Gela is considered a Site of National Priority, i.e., an area requiring special remediation work as a result of operations carried out over decades by several companies. The environmental reclamation of the site is the responsibility of Eni Rewind, Eni's environmental company. The first activities began in the 1990s with the securing of decommissioned plants and the systematic soil and water testing campaign. Subsequently, the actual reclamation activity began, which has already been completed for some areas, while for the remainder it is in progress. As part of the Porto Marghera redevelopment plan, Eni Rewind presented a project for the drying and energy exploitation of residues from civil sewage (sewage sludge) using the most advanced currently available technologies.
The transformation of production activities in Porto Marghera also involves Versalis, Eni's chemical company, through new industrial initiatives based on the circular economy model. The flagship project foresees the creation of a hub for the advanced mechanical recycling of post-consumer plastics. During the initial phase, the aim is to obtain packaging and building products completely from expanded and compacted polystyrene waste, selected from industry and trade. Then, a plant will be built for the advanced mechanical recycling of sorted plastic waste, obtained from separate waste collection, particularly polystyrene and high-density polyethylene. In addition, the first plant in Italy will be built for the production of isopropyl alcohol, an ingredient in disinfectants, detergents and many other products that is currently imported in its entirety. In parallel, we are investing in strengthening the logistics hub to further increase its flexibility.
In Porto Marghera, through Plenitude, we are completing two photovoltaic plants in areas that were once used for industrial processes and already undergoing environmental redevelopment by Eni Rewind. This way, in addition to providing renewable energy to the production site, we have optimised the use of the production area by reusing brownfield sites that could not accommodate any other types of activities.
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