Eni, Euglena, PETRONAS studying new biorefinery in Malaysia

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Italian producer Eni, Japanese biotech firm Euglena and Malaysian state-owned energy major PETRONAS on Wednesday said that they are jointly studying the possibility of developing and operating a biorefinery at the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in southern Malaysia.

“The three firms are currently carrying out technical and economic feasibility assessments for the proposed project, with the investment decision expected to be reached by 2023 and the plant targeted to be completed by 2025,” they said in a joint statement.

The biorefinery will be located adjacent to PETRONAS’ existing integrated refinery and petrochemical facilities.

The biorefinery is expected to have a flexible configuration to maximise production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for aircraft, as well as hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) for on-road vehicles, diesel-powered trains, and marine transportation.

The biorefinery is expected to have the capability to process about 650,000 tonnes/year of raw materials to produce up to 12,500 bbl/day of biofuels, namely SAF, HVO, and bio-naphtha.

“The raw materials to be used will not compete with those in the food chain such as used vegetable oils, animal fats, waste from the processing of vegetable oils, and other biomass including microalgae oils to be explored in the mid-term,” the firms said.

The planned biorefinery will use technology licensor Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining process, which was developed by Eni in cooperation with Honeywell UOP.