Biofuels, Ricci (Eni): we need a change of course for the EU

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A change of course by the European Commission on the issue of banning the internal combustion engine which allows the use, together with electricity, of biofuels. This is essentially the request that comes from Gela and is spokesperson for it by Giuseppe Ricci, general manager of Energy evolution of Eni. The place is the Refinery, now a symbol of the ecological and energy transition, which houses Ditte Juul-Joergensen, Director General for Energy of the European Commission. «Even biofuels will play an important complementary role to electric vehicles – says Ricci – above all for the decarbonisation of heavy transport, air transport and maritime transport. This visit also wants to be a moment to reflect on the European Commission’s intention to ban the internal combustion engine, even if powered by bio fuel. We would like a course correction that leads to maintaining this role and to do so we wanted to show the effort that Eni and the whole territory with its workers, its businesses and its professionalism are making in the transformation of this site. A site that could have been easily abandoned following the wave of the ecological transition and instead continues to be alive and also future prospects for relaunch”.

Ricci’s reference is to the Biorefinery launched by Eni in 2019: a plant that has a processing capacity of up to 750,000 tons per year, and mainly processes used vegetable and frying oils, animal fats and waste by-products to produce high quality biofuels. A reconversion, that of the Gela refinery into a biorefinery, also made possible by Eni’s technological innovations: in this case Ecofining, a proprietary technology developed in collaboration with Honeywell-UOP, thanks to which Eni is able to transform materials raw materials of biological origin in biofuels, in particular in the high quality biofuel HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil). The process, given its great flexibility, makes it possible to treat different types of feedstock and to produce a vast range of biofuels for road transport and jet aircraft: by 2025 Eni will double the capacity of its biorefineries in Venice and Gela to reach 2 million tonnes and within the next decade Eni’s biorefining capacity will grow to 6 million tonnes/year. “Since the 2000s, between reclamations, plants completed, plants still to be built such as Argo-Cassiopea which has finally started its construction, Eni has been investing around 4 billion euros in these parts,” said Ricci.

For Ditte Juul-Joergensen, «What is happening in Gela is very relevant. Because it demonstrates how the ecological transition can be pushed and accelerated and at the same time can be combined with social and employment development. It’s an example.”