The EU Innovation Fund will provide close to €24 million ($25.87 million) in funding for the Hera Group/Saipem CO2 capture project in Italy.
Saipem expects to apply its Bluenzyme technology to capture CO2 emissions at the waste-to-energy plant of the Herambiente subsidiary in Ferrara, eastern Italy.
The CO2, captured from the chimneys, will be transported by pipeline to depleted gas fields in the northern Adriatic Sea for subsurface storage.
Bluenzyme is based on the “CO₂ Solutions” enzymatic technology for capturing carbon dioxide from the industrial processes of small and medium-sized emitters.
The European Funds will cover a large part of the €53 million ($57.14 million) planned for the construction of the CO2 capture plant. Depending on the regulatory framework, the plant should be operational by 2028.
The project will fully abate CO2 emissions from the Ferrara waste-to-energy plant. It will capture about 90% of the emissions from one of the plant’s two lines, about 64,000 t/year of CO2.
According to Saipem, the enzymatic capture process can be powered by low-temperature geothermal heat.