Eni and Snam, within the framework of a joint venture, announced the commencement of CO2 injection activities for Phase 1 of the Ravenna CCS project. Designed to support industrial decarbonization, Ravenna CCS is the first project for the capture, transport, and permanent storage of CO2 in Italy created for exclusively environmental purposes.
Phase 1 of the project will capture, transport, and store CO2 emissions from Eni’s natural gas treatment plant in Casalborsetti, in the municipality of Ravenna, estimated to be approximately 25,000 tonnes per year. Once captured, the carbon dioxide is transported to the offshore Porto Corsini Mare Ovest platform through reconverted gas pipelines. The CO2 then will be injected and stored at a depth of 3,000 m in the depleted Porto Corsini Mare Ovest gas field.
“A project of great significance for decarbonization has now become an industrial reality,” said Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni. “The capture and storage of CO2 is an effective, safe, and now available means to reduce emissions from energy-intensive industries whose activities cannot be electrified. We are using our depleted fields, existing infrastructure, and technical expertise in reinjection techniques to offer a very competitive service, which is receiving tremendous interest. We are tackling the complexity of the energy transition with real substance and determination, increasing and enhancing the solutions available to us to decarbonize our activities as well as various areas of economic and industrial systems.”
The project is already delivering a reduction of over 90% in CO2 emissions from the Casalborsetti plant’s chimney, rising to peaks of 96%. This performance makes Ravenna CCS the world’s first industrial-scale project with such high levels of carbon capture efficiency.
Another distinctive element of the Ravenna CCS project is that the facility is fully powered by electricity from renewable sources, avoiding further CO2 emissions.
“The commitment to the Ravenna CCS project is an integral part of our strategic plan and is aligned with our intention to position ourselves as a multimolecule operator in order to enable a fair and balanced energy transition, in which offering even the most energy-intensive players the opportunity to undertake decarbonization paths that preserve their competitiveness,” said Snam CEO Stefano Venier. “To do so, we leverage our long-standing expertise in the transport and storage of molecules, with a specific focus on the Po Valley region, where we already have deep roots thanks to strategic assets that have supported the country’s economic and social development for decades.”
Over the coming years, with the Phase 2, the industrial-scale development of the project will be able to store up to 4 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030, in line with the goals defined by Italy’s Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan. To this end, the joint venture will initiate all the necessary procedures to obtain the permits in accordance with the regulatory framework and in collaboration with the authorities, stakeholders, and, in particular, with the territory.
With the total storage capacity of the depleted gas fields of the Adriatic Sea, and based on market demand, the volume of CO2 captured and stored underground could reach 16 million tonnes per year, Eni said.
Based on its characteristics and storage potential, the Ravenna project is a candidate to become the Italian hub for the decarbonization of energy-intensive and hard-to-abate industries, representing a fundamental contribution to achieve climate goals and carbon neutrality by 2050.
Eni and Snam are also conducting research and development studies for a possible future reuse of the captured CO2.