Europe’s first post-combustion carbon capture plant online

Europe’s first post-combustion carbon capture plant starts operation, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) said.

MHI’s proprietary carbon capture technology, the KM CDR Process, has been deployed to remove approximately 25,000 tonnes of CO2 annually at Europe’s first fully operational post-combustion carbon capture plant, which is part of the Ravenna Carbon Capture and Storage project launched by Eni and Snam near Ravenna, Italy.

The technology was implemented at Eni’s Casalborsetti natural gas treatment plant through NEXTCHEM, MAIRE’s subsidiary for the energy transition, who acted as a technology integrator, while MAIRE’s subsidiary KT (Integrated E&C Solutions) completed the full EPC works on site. MHI provided the Process Design Package (PDP) and is licensing its technology.

The capture process is being used to treat low-CO2 flue gas from a natural gas turbine that drives a turbo compressor. The facility is reducing CO2 emissions by 90%, rising to peaks of 96%. Considering the CO2 concentration levels of less than 3% and the low level of atmospheric pressure in the exhaust, this is a remarkable achievement for the world’s first industrial-scale project with such high levels of carbon capture efficiency - one that could be replicated with other industrial processes producing low-CO2 flue gas.

As well as being a significant development in the decarbonization of industry, this also represents a major milestone for “Ravenna CCS”, the first project for the capture, transport and permanent storage of CO2 in Italy, developed for exclusively environmental purposes by Eni and Snam. The captured CO2 is subsequently transported through reconverted gas pipelines and then injected and stored at a depth of about 3,000 meters in Eni’s Porto Corsini Mare Ovest depleted offshore gas field. Over the coming years, with Phase 2, the further industrial-scale development of the Ravenna CCS project will enable the storage of up to 4 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.

“What MHI’s carbon capture technology has achieved through this project marks a significant milestone and paves the way for further carbon emission reductions across the industry in the future,” said Tatsuto Nagayasu, MHI’s Senior Vice President (CCUS) of GX (Green Transformation) Solutions.