Venice Biorefinery

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Nombre / Name
Venice Biorefinery
Empresa / Company
eni (www.eni.com)
Localización / Location
Porto Marghera, Venice (Italy)
Categoría / Category
Comercial / Commercial
Estado / Status
Operación / Running
Plataformas / Platforms
Aceites / Oil
Materia prima / Feedstock
Aceites vegetales, grasas de origen animal y aceites de cocina usados / Vegetable oils, animal fats and used cooking oils
Producto / Product
Aceite Vegetal Hidrotratado / Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO)
Puesta en marcha / Start-Up
Junio 2014 / June 2014

Figure 1. Venice Biorefinery (extracted from Reference 3)

El Proyecto Green Refinery (un programa de innovación de eni) tiene como objetivo transformar refinerías existentes en biorrefinerías mediante el uso de la tecnología EcofiningTM y la refinería de Venecia es el primer ejemplo. eni y UOP han desarrollado un proceso de hidrotratamiento, llamado EcofiningTM, para la producción de biocombustibles avanzados, principalmente diesel renovable, pero también biocombustibles para aviación, bionaftas y bioGLPs. La calidad es independiente del tipo de material prima renovable utilizada: aceites vegetales, grasas animales, aceites usados y procedentes de algas. Con la reforma de las unidades de hidrodesulfuración existentes en Venecia, se aceleró intensamente el avance del proyecto y se redujo de manera significativa la inversión, estimada en 1/5 de la necesaria para completar desde cero una unidad de la tecnología EcofiningTM de la misma capacidad. El arranque de la biorrefinería de Porto Marghera tuvo lugar en junio de 2014 y tiene una capacidad de cerca de 300.000 ton/año de diésel verde. La capacidad máxima producción de biocombustibles (500 kton/año) se alcanzará cuando se ponga en operación una nueva unidad de producción de hidrógeno durante este año. The Green Refinery project (an innovation program of eni) aims to transform existing refineries into biorefineries by means of the EcofiningTM technology and the Venice Refinery is the first example. eni and UOP have developed a hydrotreatment process, called EcofiningTM, for the production of advanced biofuels, predominately renewable diesel, but also jet biofuels, bionaphta and bioLPGs. The quality is independent on the renewable feedstocks used: vegetable oils, tallow, used cooking oils or oils from algae. The revamp of the existing HDS units in Venice intensely sped up the advance of the project, reducing significantly the required investment cost, estimated in 1/5 of a new EcofiningTM grass root unit of the same capacity. The start up of the biorefinery of Porto Marghera took place in June 2014 and it has a capacity of approximately 300,000 tons/y of green diesel. The maximum biofuels production (about 500 ktons/y) will be achieved when a new hydrogen production unit will be put in operation during this year.

Figure 2. EcofiningTM process simplified diagram (extracted from eni web page)

El proceso EcofiningTM está compuesto de dos etapas de reacciones: (1) Los triglicéridos contenidos en las materias primas biológicas son completamente desoxigenados en un medio ácido con presencia de hidrogeno y en un catalizador metálico patentado, para producir una mezcla de parafinas lineales, CO2 y agua. (2) El producto de la primera etapa se isomeriza, siempre en presencia de hidrógeno y en un catalizador patentado, para generar ramas de cadenas lineales que mejoren las propiedades de flujo a baja temperatura de los productos finales. The EcofiningTM process consists of two stages of reactions: (1) The triglycerides contained in the biological feedstock are completely deoxygenated in a sour environment with presence of hydrogen and on a proprietary metallic catalyst, producing a mix of linear paraffins, CO2 and water. (2) The product of the first stage is isomerized, always in presence of hydrogen and on proprietary catalyst, in order to branch the linear chains for improving the cold flow properties of the final products.

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REFERENCIAS / REFERENCES
1 www.eni.com/en_IT/company/operations-strategies/refining-marketing/refining-rf/refinery-marghera.shtml.
2 www.eni.com/en_IT/sustainability/pages/green-refinery-project-porto-marghera.shtml.
3 “Green Refinery: reinventing petroleum refineries”. eni brochure.

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