Eni Sustainable Mobility and Saipem have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the aim of employing biofuels on Saipem’s drilling and construction naval vessels, with particular attention to operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Saipem has a global fleet consisting of 45 vessels for construction and drilling.
German environment minister Steffi Lemke said on Tuesday she would soon send proposals to the cabinet for the country to withdraw from the use of crop-based biofuels to achieve reductions in greenhouse gases, International Press Agency Reuters states. “Biofuels stand for land consumption and loss of biological diversity,” Lemke said in a speech on Tuesday posted on the environment ministry’s website. “To replace only around 4% of fossil fuel use in German road transport, a land space in Germany and abroad is needed which represents about 20% of the German agricultural area. That is not future-orientated.”
According to Reuters, the Biden administration could change the nation’s biofuel blending law next year to offer lucrative credits to electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla, a major rewrite that the oil industry criticizes as subsidizing the EV industry. The Renewable Fuel Standard, enacted in the mid-2000s, mandates the amount of biofuels like landfill or agricultural methane that oil refiners must blend into the nation’s fuel mix, or buy tradable credits – known as RINs – from those that do.
Neste, the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel produced from waste and residue raw materials, has agreed to acquire the used cooking oil (UCO) collection and aggregation business and related assets in the United States from Crimson Renewable Energy Holdings, LLC. The transaction includes shares in SeQuential Environmental Services, LLC, and Pure, LLC, as well as a UCO processing plant in Salem, Oregon. The transaction is subject to the fulfillment of customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.
Versalis, the chemical division of Italian oil giant Eni, met last week in Rome with representatives of national and local trade unions to present its business plan for the next four years. According to the company, more than 1.1 billion euros have been spent in the last four years and the plan is to continue with investments focused on four strategic areas: specialization, circularity, chemistry from renewables and efficiency.
The US is ordering refiners to boost the use of biofuels such as corn-based ethanol, as the Biden administration tries to strike a balance between competing political and economic pressures while gasoline prices soar.
Canadian company Enerkem, a world leader in the production of low-carbon intensity biofuels and circular chemicals from waste materials, closed a new financing totaling $255 million. Repsol invests $170 million, of which $75 million is in Enerkem’s equity and $95 million in convertible debt. In doing so, Repsol joins existing shareholder Suncor Energy as a strategic shareholder to accelerate the adoption and deployment of Enerkem’s technology and to develop new projects in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). In addition, Monarch Alternative Capital, a new investor, is contributing $30 million to the round while Avenue Capital Group is reinvesting $30 million, both in convertible debt. Finally, there is $25 million reinvested in equity by some existing shareholders.
Aviation fuel supplier ExxonMobil has reached an agreement with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producer Neste to commercially distribute Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel at France’s largest airports. The move comes after the French Government introduced the 1% SAF mandate, which has come into force from 1 January.
Houston-based Kinder Morgan is partnering with Finnish company Neste to create a raw material storage and logistics hub in the United States that will support increased production of renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, and renewable feedstock for polymers and chemicals.
Upon completion of the project, Kinder Morgan’s Harvey, La., facility will serve as the primary hub where Neste will store a variety of raw materials, including, for example, the used cooking oil it collects from more than 40,000 restaurants across the United States, the company said.
Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc., a pioneer in the production of low-carbon fuels, completed construction of the world’s first commercial-scale plant converting household garbage into low-cost, zero-carbon transportation fuels. Through Fulcrum’s revolutionary process, the Sierra BioFuels Plant located east of Reno, Nevada, will convert 175,000 tons of prepared municipal solid waste (MSW) into approximately 11 million gallons of zero-carbon syncrude annually, which will then be upgraded to transportation fuels such as sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel and renewable gasoline – Fulcrum FuelTM. With construction complete, start-up and commissioning on the plant has commenced and fuel production is expected to begin during the fourth quarter of 2021.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 