An Italian oil giant will soon build a biorefinery and recycling plant to generate fuel from food waste and discarded plastic.
According to a press release, Eni, one of the largest oil companies in the world, has received approval from the Italian government to transform one of its industrial sites in Sicily into something more eco-friendly.
The new biorefinery will process around 550,000 tons of biological material, such as vegetable residues, vegetable oils, and animal fats, per year into hydrotreated vegetable oil diesel fuel for road, marine, and rail transport, and biojet fuel for aviation.
In addition, a recycling plant will use Eni's proprietary Hoop technology for the chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste.
It will process around 44,000 tons of plastic per year and generate 35,000 tons of pyrolysis oil, a synthetic oil specifically made from used plastic destined for landfills.
It will even be able to recycle the plastic waste into raw materials for new plastic products. The plans also include a biogenic feedstock pre-treatment unit and a hydrogen production facility.
The Hoop technology was developed in partnership with an Italian engineering company to find a solution capable of "high material recovery yields and broad flexibility with respect to feedstock input," Eni said.
"This is made possible by combining a high-performance pyrolysis reactor with advanced expertise in polymer property measurement and process optimization using artificial intelligence," the company continued.
The new facilities from Eni should be completed by the end of 2028. These plans and their approval mark a significant step forward in addressing both the world's energy crisis and its plastic pollution problem.
Drilling for oil and digging up dirty fuels to power our cars, planes, and other transportation is destroying our environment, causing temperatures to rise, and impacting human health. Research and technology dedicated to improving and expanding alternative energy sources are crucial.
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The ability to convert food waste and plastic into fuel will be invaluable for the future of the planet. It will help reduce methane emissions, curb plastic waste, and reduce the spread of microplastics.
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