Aeroporti di Roma to accelerate green transition with Eni biofuel

A new milestone has been reached in the partnership between Eni and Aeroporti di Roma (ADR), as part of their strategic agreement aimed at promoting decarbonisation initiatives in the aviation sector and accelerating the green transition of airports.

A shipment of 5,000L of pure HVO hydrogenated biofuel arrived at Fiumicino Airport from Eni’s Venice biorefinery in Porto Marghera. A further contribution to the decarbonisation of road vehicles at airports. The HVO hydrogenated biofuel is used in ADR Assistance vehicles to transport passengers with reduced mobility around the airport. HVO is a high quality biofuel of plant and waste origin, produced through Eni’s proprietary Ecofining™ technology in Eni’s Venice and Gela biorefineries. Thanks to hydrogenation technology, all impurities such as oxygen and sulphur are removed allowing it to be used in a 100 per cent pure form. It also has a high cetane number for optimum combustion, is free of aromatics and polyaromatics, and can reduce CO₂ emissions by between 60 and 90 per cent (calculated over its entire life cycle) compared with conventional fuel, depending on the type of biogenic feedstock.

An agreement between Eni and ADR is already in place for the supply of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) produced at Eni’s Taranto refinery through a co-feeding process at conventional plants with 0.5 per cent  made up of used cooking and frying oils. This is a further step forward for Aeroporti di Roma in terms of sustainability after Fiumicino Airport, the leading Italian airport hub, which was the first airport in Europe to be awarded the highest Airport Carbon Accreditation 4+ ‘Transition’ certification from ACI Europe for CO₂ reduction. This is in line with Aeroporti di Roma’s target, announced last year, which set out in the Sustainability-Linked Bond issued last April (2021) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2030, well in advance of the original sector targets.

Over the next few months of 2022, Eni will begin production of SAFs at Eni’s Livorno refinery through distilling bio-components produced in Eni’s biorefineries. The raw materials used will be exclusively waste vegetable oils and fats, with the resulting product, called ‘Eni Biojet’, containing 100 per cent biogenic components and able to comprise up to 50 per cent of a blend with conventional jet fuel.