Eni CCS Project in Italy Wins EU Funding

SUBSCRIBE SEARCH ARTICLES NEWS The Ravenna carbon capture and storage project on Italy's side of the Adriatic Sea is among 12 'large-scale' projects the European Commission selected for the Innovation Fund call issued last December. Image by corradobarattaphotos via iStock

The Ravenna carbon capture and storage (CCS) project on Italy's side of the Adriatic Sea is among 12 "large-scale" projects the European Commission selected for the Innovation Fund call issued last December.

"The selection by the European Commission represents significant recognition of the project's industrial, technical and economic robustness, as well as its strategic relevance to achieving Europe's climate objectives", project co-owner Eni SpA said in a press release.

"Ravenna CCS is the leading European hub for the permanent storage of CO₂ in Italy and Mediterranean Europe, with an overall capacity of approximately 500 million tons, equivalent to more than 70 percent of the announced storage capacity in the Mediterranean.

"Ravenna CCS Phase 2 involves the large-scale development of the Ravenna hub, building on the experience gained during the project's first phase, which achieved excellent results in terms of decarbonization and energy efficiency.

"The development plan envisages reaching a storage capacity of four million tonnes of CO₂ per year by 2030, with the potential for progressive expansion to 16 million tons per year in subsequent development phases.

"The project's multimodal architecture will enable CO₂ from a wide range of Italian and European industrial emitters to be collected by pipeline, ship, rail and road transport, for subsequent permanent storage in offshore reservoirs in the Adriatic Sea".

Under the project partnership, "Snam will develop the onshore transport infrastructure, including the Ravenna-Casalborsetti and Ferrara-Casalborsetti pipelines, which will connect Italy's main industrial areas to the Ravenna storage system", Eni said.

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Phase 1 began injection 2024. With a capacity of 25,000 metric tons per year, it captures CO₂ emissions from Eni's natural gas treatment plant in the municipality of Ravenna. Reconverted gas pipelines carry the captured emissions to the offshore Porto Corsini Mare Ovest gas production platform. The CO2 is then injected into the ga field at a depth of 3,000 meters (over 9,800 feet), according to Eni.

The group of large-scale projects selected for the Innovation Fund has been allotted a total of EUR 1.58 billion, according to the European Commission.

The 12 projects include "projects focused on advanced decarbonized fuels, industrial carbon management, chemicals, iron and steel, aviation, and a Critical Raw Materials Act Strategic Project", the Commission said in an online statement Monday.

A total of EUR 3.4 billion have been allocated for the broader list of selections, which comprise 77 "net-zero technology" projects.

"Spread across 23 countries in the European Economic Area, the selected projects… includes [sic] energy-intensive industries, renewable energy and innovative energy storage, cleantech manufacturing, net-zero mobility, critical raw materials processing and recycling, advanced alternative fuels, and industrial carbon management", the Commission said.

"For the first time, the list includes a small modular nuclear reactor project and a direct air carbon capture and storage project. It all also includes 6 Critical Raw Materials projects, which will feed into the policy priorities of the Net-Zero Industry Act and the RESourceEU Action Plan, boosting the supply chains for clean tech applications, including rare earth permanent magnets and batteries.

"The Commission estimates that the 77 projects have the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, avoiding the equivalent of around 290 million tons over their first decade of operations. This corresponds to a rough reduction of one tonne of CO₂ per second for a decade. This reduction, and the knock-on effects of the innovations across other sectors, will contribute significantly towards the EU's 2050 climate neutrality goal".

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