Eni confirms decision to convert Livorno, Italy, refinery into renewable diesel facility

Eni's Livorno site will be the home to Italy's third biorefinery (Photo: Eni)

Italian energy firm and biorefiner Eni announced Jan. 29 that the company has confirmed its decision to build Italy’s third biorefinery in Livorno.

The project, first announced in October 2022 and followed by an application for environmental-impact assessment in November 2022, is awaiting official authorizations and includes the construction of three new facilities for the production of hydrotreated biofuels: a biogenic feedstock pretreatment unit; a 500,000-ton-per-year (tpy) Ecofining™ plant; and a facility to produce hydrogen from methane gas.

Following other successful conversions in Porto Marghera (2014) and Gela (2019), the conversion of the Livorno industrial site confirms Eni’s decarbonization strategy, which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and increase biorefining capacity from 1.65 million tpy currently to over 5 million tpy by 2030.

In line with the strategic decision to convert the Livorno refinery, future-proofing the site in terms of production and employment, Eni has stopped importing crude oil and initiated the shutdown of the lubricants production lines and topping plant.

Fuel distribution in the area will be guaranteed through the import of finished and semifinished products.

Preparatory work for the construction of the three new biorefining plants is underway, with construction to commence following regulatory approval.

Completion and commissioning are expected by 2026.

The plants will process various biogenic feedstocks, mainly vegetable waste and residue, to produce renewable diesel, naphtha and bio-LPG.

Eni said through its Enilive company it is the second-largest producer of hydrotreated biofuels in Europe and the third-largest in the world. 

Eni’s growth strategy is driven by the increasing demand in Europe and Italy for biofuels in the mobility sector, both to meet the emission-reduction targets set out in the recently approved Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) and to comply with Italian legislation requiring the introduction of pure biofuels.

Forecasts predict a 65 percent increase in demand for hydrotreated biofuels globally between 2024 and 2028.