Enel Starts First Carbon-Capture Project

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Italian energy giant Enel SpA (BIT:ENEL) (Rome) has commissioned its first carbon-capture and storage (CCS) plant at the Federico II coal-fired power station in Brindisi, in southeast Italy.

The pilot plant in Brindisi, which uses post-combustion CCS technology, is the first one in Italy and will pave the way toward the first, industrial-scale carbon-capture project at Enel's Porto Tolle plant in the coming years. Plans for the pilot plant began in 2008, following a deal between Enel and Eni SpA (NYSE:E) (Rome).

Federica II has a generating capacity of 2,640 megawatts (MW), and the CCS pilot plant will be able to treat 10,000 cubic meters per hour of fumes. Within that, the CCS plant will separate out 2.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per hour, up to a maximum of 8,000 metric tons per year. According to Enel, this is the equivalent of the CO2 absorbed by about 800,000 trees, or a 10-square-kilometer forest.

The CO2 is separated from the fumes using a chemical absorbent system. The absorbent is then heated with steam which releases the captured CO2 in pure form so that it can be liquefied and stored. Captured CO2 will transported at the ENI/Stogit site in Cortemaggiore, where it will be pumped and stored underground. The storage plant is expected to be operational by 2012.

"The completion of this pilot plant in Brindisi is an important step forward in the development of new technologies upon which the world's future energy system will be built," said Enel CEO and General Manager, Fulvio Conti. "Carbon dioxide capture and sequestration will allow the further use of fossil fuels, drastically eliminating emissions of CO2, which is not in itself a polluting gas but it is thought to be chiefly responsible for the greenhouse effect. It will be, along with renewables and nuclear power, a winning response to the challenge of having steady supplies of environmentally friendly energy."

Speaking about the long-term impact of Enel's energy mix, Conti added: "In Italy, using a balanced mix of energy from renewables, clean coal, nuclear power and gas, we should be able to cut the electricity bills of households and businesses to bring them in line with those of other European countries."

The European Commission has allocated more than 1 billion euros ($1.47 billion) to six CCS projects, of which Enel's Porto Tolle plant, near Venice, will receive about 100 million euros ($147 million). For additional information, see December 10, 2009, article - Europe Releases 1.5 Billion Euros in Grants for CCS and Offshore Projects.

The other five CCS projects to win funding are:

• The Hatfield coal-fired integrated gas combined-cycle plant from Powerfuel Power Limited (Doncaster, England)
• Endesa S.A.'s (MCE:ELE) (Madrid, Spain) Compostilla plant in Spain
• Vattenfall AB's (Stockholm, Sweden) Jaenschwalde plant in Germany
• PGE Elektrownia's Belchatow plant in Poland
• The Maasvlakte power plant in Rotterdam, Netherlands, owned by E.ON Benelux (Rotterdam)

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