Porto Tolle demonstration plant

Enel is a world leader in the development of technologies for the capture of CO2 contained in fuel gases from coal-fired power plants (post-combustion capture) and in gasified fossil fuels (pre-combustion capture). It is also at the forefront in developing CO2 storage solutions.

Enel is committed to building a CCS demonstration facility at Porto Tolle (Ro), which will capture CO2 present in the flue stream from a power plant, then compressing, transporting and storing it in a saline aquifer. The project involves retrofitting a 660MW coal-fired power-generation group equipped with a post-combustion CO2 capture system at the Porto Tolle plant.

The post-combustion capture equipment will be designed to treat a flue gas flow rate of 0.8 MNm3/h, corresponding to a quota equal to the 250 MWe electrical output. The post-combustion capture unit will separate about 1 Mt/y of CO2, which will be transported to an off-shore saline aquifer and injected underground.

This project, one of the most advanced pre-commercial CCS demonstration projects in the world,  was awarded €100 million by the European Union as part of the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR), to finance the first construction phase.

Prior to the Porto Tolle project, Enel has constructed and operated a pilot CO2 capture plant in Brindisi, southern Italy. The pilot plant is part of the first integrated CCS pilot project in Italy, in the frame of a very important collaboration agreement on CCS between Enel and Eni.