(Reuters) -A joint venture between Malaysia’s Petronas, Italy’s Eni biofuel unit Enilive and Japan’s Euglena said on Monday it started building a new biorefinery in Malaysia to produce sustainable fuels for the Asian market.
The plant is designed to process up to 650,000 tonnes of renewable feedstock per year, including waste materials such as used vegetable oils, animal fats and residues from vegetable oil processing. It will produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO) and bio-naphtha.
It will be in Pengerang, in the state of Johor, on the tip of the Malay Peninsula, a key location for international shipping routes.
The site is expected to begin operations in the second half of 2028, according to the companies’ joint statement.
“The new biorefinery is a further and relevant step forward towards the achievement of a production capacity over 5 million tons per year and over 2 million tons of SAF by 2030,” Enilive’s Chief Executive Officer Stefano Ballista said in the statement.
(Reporting by Romolo Tosiani in Gdansk; Editing by Giulia Segreti)
