Italian energy company Eni has embarked on the latest stage of the conversion of an ethylene plant in Sicily into a biorefinery and a chemical recycling facility.
Following recent approval from the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security for the plan, ENI has launched the authorisation process for an environmental impact assessment of its industrial site in Priolo. The new plant will be based on Versalis’ proprietary Hoop technology.
Hydrogen production
Versalis’ ethylene plant will gradually be decommissioned and the new biorefinery will have a production capacity of 500 000 tonnes per year. It will be fed mainly by vegetable waste, animal fats and vegetable oils. The project includes a biogenic feedstock pre-treatment unit and a plant to produce hydrogen.
The Priolo biorefinery will be the second in Sicily, after the Gela plant which has been in operation since 2019. It will produce hydrotreated vegetable diesel for road, marine and rail transport, as well as SAF-biojet for the aviation sector. Completion is scheduled by the end of 2028.
AI tech
The Versalis Hoop plant will employ the company’s proprietary technology for the pyrolysis of mixed plastic packaging waste. It will have a processing capacity of 40 000 tonnes per year and is expected to produce around 32 000 tonnes of pyrolysis oil.
In June 2025 a demo plant was commissioned at Versalis’ plant in Mantua and the Priolo facility will be the first at industrial scale.
Hoop originated from a joint project with the Italian engineering company Servizi di Ricerche e Sviluppo for the development of a technology with high material recovery yields and broad flexibility of feedstock input. It combines a high-performance pyrolysis reactor with advanced expertise in polymer property measurement and process optimisation using artificial intelligence.
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