Capacity of 400,000 tons, SAF plant starts production

Enilive announced on January 22 that its first Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) plant has been commissioned at the Gela biorefinery in Sicily, Italy, with a capacity of 400,000 tons per year. This is nearly one-third of the projected European SAF demand in 2025 following the implementation of the ReFuelEU aviation regulation.

Under the ReFuelEU aviation regulation, aviation fuel suppliers are required to ensure that a certain percentage of SAF is included in fuel supplied to air operators at EU airports, with the regulation requiring a minimum percentage of SAF starting at 2% in 2025 and gradually increasing to 6% in 2030, 20% in 2035, 34% in 2040, 42% in 2045 and 70% in 2050. The following are some examples of the changes that have been made to the program.

Since September 2022, Enilive has signed SAF supply agreements with several airlines. Initial production has been achieved using waste-based feedstocks thanks to synergies between the Gela biorefinery and other Eni facilities.

Enilive plans to increase its biorefinery capacity to more than 5 million tons per year by 2030 and to double its SAF capacity to 1 million tons per year by 2026 and again by 2030.