One of Italy’s Largest “Decarbonization” Projects

The first phase of the Ravenna CCS (carbon capture and storage) project, created by the Italian energy and hydrocarbon company ENI in collaboration with SNAM (an energy infrastructure company), will start in the next few months. The goal is to collect 25 thousand tons of CO₂ per year and then store it in the Adriatic Sea.

The plant on “taking away” carbon dioxide will be located next to the Casalborsetti gas plant in Marina di Ravenna, the utilization is then planned in one of the depleted gas fields in the Mediterranean, in this particular case the one operated by ENI’s Porto Corsini Mare Ovest. The project consists of a CO₂ storage infrastructure that allows carbon dioxide to be taken away “at source,” thereby reducing emissions in industrial areas and making them more sustainable and competitive in the market.

Depleted and depletion-stage fields already allow for inexpensive and rapid carbon dioxide storage infrastructure that meets the criteria of a circular economy. Here, thanks to the network created by SNAM, which uses, in this case, already existing infrastructure, a total capacity of more than 500 million tons of carbon dioxide can be stored.

This project is part of the larger Callisto Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) plan, which has been listed as a European Union project of common interest. It will be able to access the Connecting Europe Facility Fund (CEF) to obtain non-refundable financing for research and the development of infrastructure to receive, transport, and store CO₂.

According to ENI, “this will be one of the largest enterprises of its type in the world.” In the second phase, starting 2026, storage of 4 million tons of CO₂ is planned to be achieved, and starting 2030, greater capacity of deposits will allow the project to increase to 16 million tons exported and stored annually.