Todays Latest Updates: 07 April 2026

Biofuels: Italy The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Eni signed a 15-year loan for €500 million to convert selected units of Eni’s Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi refinery, located in the Italian province of Pavia, into a biorefinery. The project involves converting the refinery’s Hydrocracker (HDC2) unit using Ecofining™ technology, and building a pre-treatment plant for waste materials like used cooking oils and animal fats, as well as waste from the agri-food industry, which comprise the main feedstock used by Enilive (Eni’s company devoted to achieving more sustainable mobility) to produce hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuels. Link 07/04/2026.

Biojet/SAF: Indonesia. Nextchem, through its subsidiary KT Tech, was awarded a contract for early engineering works and proprietary equipment supply for a SAF plant under development in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. The plant is designed to produce 60,000 tons per year of SAF with high efficiency using palm oil mill effluent (POME) as primary feedstock, as well as certified used cooking oil enabling the valorization of locally available resources. The project will leverage Nextchem’s proprietary NX PTU™ and NX SAF™ BIO technologies, which have already been licensed for the initiative. Link 07/04/2026.

E-fuels: The Netherlands. Swiss e-fuel start-up Metafuels secured €1.92m ($2.2m) from the Dutch government to progress a 12,000-litre-per-day green hydrogen-based synthetic aviation fuel (e-SAF) project in the Port of Rotterdam. The project will use the start-up’s Aerobrew technology, which converts green methanol into jet fuel. Originally unveiled last May, the project is expected to initially produce 12,000 litres of e-SAF per day from 2028, with plans to eventually increase production tenfold to 120,000 litres per day in a second phase by 2031. Link 07/04/2026.

Feedstock: Indonesia. As crude becomes more expensive due to the Middle East war, biodiesel producers are turning to palm oil, which is currently trading at a significant discount to gasoil, making it a more cost‑effective feedstock. Higher freight rates are also influencing buying patterns. The conflict has effectively reversed trends which saw low prices and high inventory towards lifting palm oil prices to their highest in more than a year. Link 07/04/2026.

Hydrogen: Japan. A Japanese consortium announced the “world’s first” co-firing of a hydrogen-fuelled engine for large commercial merchant ships, ahead of integration into a vessel. The engine is an example of a large, low-speed, two-stroke, liquid hydrogen-fuelled engine intended for large merchant ships.  The engine is scheduled to be shipped in January 2027 for installation on a 17,500 DWT vessel belonging to MOL, designed and built at Onimichi Dockyard. Link 07/04/2026.