Is Biorefinery The Future?

By Rita Maina

Eni and the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining signed a memorandum of understanding to promote climate change initiatives and a circular economy in Kenya through a Bio-fuel production value chain. Bioenergy is an emerging trend to solve the current decrease of the world petroleum reserves and the environmental challenges associated with the resource. There are similarities between biorefining and oil refining with the major difference being the raw material for oil refining comes from fossil fuels. The main aim is to produce products that can replace oil refining products that are used globally in various industries.
In light of this, exactly what is a biorefinery? According to the International Energy Agency, a biorefinery is the sustainable processing of biomass into a spectrum of marketable bio-based products (chemicals, materials) and bioenergy (fuels, power, heat). Examples of biomass feedstocks include agricultural crop residues, forestry residues, algae, wood processing residues, municipal wastes, and food waste. Biofuels include transportation fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel which are produced by converting biomass into liquid fuels. Biopower is produced by converting renewable biofuels into electricity and heat through burning, bacteria decay, or conversion of gas to liquid. Bio-based products are made by converting biomass into chemicals used to make plastics and other products that would normally be made from petroleum.
The Eni biorefinery plant in Venice is one of the first biorefineries to be converted from an oil refinery and is capable of transforming biomass into high-quality biofuels. The refinery produces green diesel, green naphtha, LPG, and eventually jet fuel. It mainly uses cooking oil, vegetable oil, and animal fats and can be able to convert approximately 500,000 tons of biomass per year. Eni is planning an agricultural development project in Kenya that will produce feedstocks, that do not compete with food and a waste and residue collection for used cooking oil which could be an input to the Eni biorefineries in Italy. They are also looking at converting the Mombasa refinery into a second-generation biorefinery that will produce bioethanol. This new initiative should be done in tandem with the local communities where they should benefit from jobs as well as become key contributors to the environmental sustainability and innovation of this sector. The local communities will also be key in ensuring there is an adequate supply of biomass. The government will also need to provide appropriate investments in this sector and regulations to ensure food security and avoid changes in land use.