Syndial, Eni's environmental company, has set up the first pilot plant in the Gela refinery in Sicily for the recovery and transformation of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (FORSU) into a bio-oil that will be used to produce new generation fuels. The start-up of the plant was made possible using represents technology waste to fuel, developed in the Eni Research Center for Renewable Energy and the Environment in Navora. Waste to fuel technology makes it possible to replicate a process that nature takes millions of years to replicate in just a few hours, i.e. transforming prehistoric biomass into energy.
Furthermore, its use generates a precious resource as a by-product: water, which can be used for industrial and civil uses. Wet waste is valorised thanks to the recovery and treatment of its water content, equal to about 70%. The start of production in Gela thus marks a further step forward in the circular economy strategy that will lead Eni to build waste-to-fuel plants on an industrial scale, once the pilot phase is completed, eliminating a large amount of organic waste through their reuse and providing a contribution in terms of environmental benefits to large urban areas in Italy and abroad.
The Gela pilot plant has an estimated bio-oil production capacity of around 70 kilograms per day and is fed with 700 kg of organic waste per day supplied by the Society for the regulation of the SRR waste management service of Ragusa. The waste to fuel project is an example of circular economy: in addition to the reuse of abandoned and reclaimed areas, it enhances waste raw materials and transforms them into a new energy material, helping to support the territories in which Eni operates in the waste disposal system municipal waste.
