BOLOGNA (ITALPRESS) – Capturing carbon dioxide coming out of waste-to-energy plants’ smokestacks and storing it in depleted natural gas fields, thus significantly lowering plant emissions and contributing to the decarbonization of territories. This is the goal of the cutting-edge project at the Ferrara waste-to-energy plant-proposed by Hera Group, the lead entity, in collaboration with Saipem-that has been selected to receive funding under the EU Innovation Fund’s fourth call for mid-scale projects. Once the allocation is final, the amount earmarked for this CO 2 capture project will be nearly 24 million euros.This industrial CO 2 capture project is the first in Italy designed to be applied to waste-to-energy plants and among the first in Europe. It envisages the application of Bluenzyme, Saipem’s proprietary and modular solution based on “CO 2 Solutions,” an innovative enzymatic technology for capturing carbon dioxide in industrial processes of small and medium emitters.The initiative was selected by European authorities on the basis of its high level of innovativeness and for its potential replicability on other waste-to-energy plants and in other hard-to-abate industrial sectors in Italy and, more generally, in Europe. European funds will cover a significant portion of the 53 million euros planned for the construction of the CO 2 capture plant. Subject to opportunities arising from the evolution of the regulatory environment, the plant is assumed to be operational by 2028.The project will completely abate CO 2 emissions from the Ferrara waste-to-energy plant CO 2 capture is a key decarbonization lever for waste-to-energy plants and, for the time being, the Herambiente plant in Ferrara has been identified as the most suitable one. In fact, the project will make it possible to capture about 90 percent of the emissions from one of the two waste-to-energy lines, or 64,000 tons of CO 2 per year (equivalent to the annual emissions of about 37,000 cars), which is the entirety of the CO 2 emitted, thus making the entire energy production obtained from the waste-to-energy of undifferentiated waste sustainable. The remaining portion of CO 2 emitted by the plant, in fact, is biogenic in nature and therefore environmentally neutral. The captured CO 2 will be transported by pipeline and stored in the depleted gas fields of the upper Adriatic Sea.The new CO 2 capture plant will ensure high standards of safety and innovation, while also allowing maximization of energy efficiency. It will in fact be totally green, because it will use electricity from renewable sources, i.e., produced both by the waste-to-energy plant itself and by heat provided by geothermal sources piped through the multiutility’s district heating network. In fact, the environmentally friendly enzymatic capture process can be powered precisely by low-temperature heat, such as geothermal heat. Additional CO 2 emissions will therefore be avoided .With this initiative, the Hera Group, one of Italy’s leading multi-utility companies, reaffirms its commitment to encouraging and supporting the ecological transition of the territories it serves, thanks to its extensive plant equipment and the know-how gained in the various sectors of activity. It therefore confirms its pioneering role in the pursuit of carbon neutrality, a central theme in its strategy: in fact, this project represents one of the main internal levers envisaged by the Hera Group’s Climate Transition Plan aimed at reducing emissions with the goal of reaching Net Zero by 2050. Out of the 4.4 billion investments planned by Hera Group in its business plan for the period 2023-2027, more than 30 percent are earmarked for projects to promote decarbonization. “We have obtained the highest score in the European call for proposals of the Innovation Fund: this confirms the absolutely innovative nature of this initiative. It is a very important achievement, which sees us as pioneers in Italy with this industrial-scale CO2 capture solution applied to waste-to-energy plants,” said Orazio Iacono, CEO of Hera Group (pictured). As a leader in the environmental supply chain, we are going to chart the path of innovation in this area, leveraging investment and expertise. This is a safe technology that can be replicated on other plants in Italy and abroad, combining circular economy activities aimed at material recovery with decarbonization processes. With this solution, in a sector as important as waste treatment and power generation, we extend the life of plants by increasing their resilience. This technology is one of the main domestic levers for reducing Scope 1 emissions in our Climate Transition Plan. We are the first player in the multi-utility sector in Italy and among the first in Europe to declare the Net Zero to 2050 goal on all three Scopes: being strongly rooted in the territories we serve, we feel in fact more than any other company the need to create value, fostering sustainable development of communities and increasing the resilience of our assets with the enabling lever of new technologies.” “The recognition by the EU Innovation Fund confirms the high level of innovation of Saipem’s Bluenzyme technology for the decarbonization of small and medium emitters in the hard-to-abate sectors with a unique project at the Italian and European level that reinforces our company’s role in accompanying its clients on the path to carbon neutrality,” said Alessandro Puliti, CEO of Saipem.
– Photo: Photogram Agency -(ITALPRESS).
