The three parties are currently carrying out technical and economic feasibility assessments for the proposed project, with the investment decision expected next year and the plant targeted to be completed by 2025.
To be located adjacent to Petronas’ existing integrated refinery and petrochemical facilities in Johor, the biorefinery will leverage its integrated value chain and existing utilities and facilities in PIC.
The complex’s strategic location with easy access to major international shipping lanes will also enhance the planned refinery’s ability to cater to rising demand for sustainable solutions worldwide.
The biorefinery is expected to have a flexible configuration to maximise production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for aircraft, hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) for on-road vehicles, diesel-powered trains, and marine transportation. This flexibility will enable the production to meet the ever-changing and growing energy demands of customers.
The biorefinery is also expected to have the capability to process about 650,000 tonnes per year of raw materials to produce up to 12,500 barrels per 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.
“This collaboration is momentous to unlock the partners’ respective strengths and jointly strengthen our position in the field of biofuels in Malaysia and around the world,” said Ahmad Adly Alias, vice-president of refining, marketing and trading of Petronas’ downstream business.
The planned biorefinery will use Honeywell UOP’s Ecofining™ process which was developed by Eni in cooperation with the former.
Eni COO for energy evolution Giuseppe Ricci said: “Eni is pleased to share its experience and breakthrough technologies that enabled us to make the world’s first conversion of a refinery into a biorefinery in Porto Marghera (Venice, Italy) in 2014, and to inaugurate a second one in Gela, Sicily in 2019.”
Eni plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through a decarbonisation pathway that aims to reduce the emissions generated throughout the entire products life cycle. To achieve this, the role of biofuels is decisive because they represent an energy carrier that can make a contribution to the decarbonisation of transport.
Meanwhile, Euglena is a leading Japanese biotechnology-driven and sustainability-oriented growth company.
Euglena completed Japan’s first demonstration plant producing renewable jet and diesel fuels in 2018 and supplied its products to corporates and organisations covering land, air and marine areas across the country.
Recently, Euglena became Japan’s first supplier that introduced domestic SAF to the hydrant system of Narita International Airport and completed Japan’s first supply of SAF to government-owned aircraft.
Euglena founder and president Mitsuru Izumo said the project is a significant step for the commercialisation of its biofuel business, and its challenge to expedite biofuel usage and decarbonisation in Japan.