Eni and Air Liquide have entered into a collaboration agreement aimed at assessing decarbonization solutions in the Mediterranean region of Europe, focused on hard-to-abate industrial sectors. The two companies join forces combining their well-established expertise and know-how to enable CO₂ capture, aggregation, transport and permanent storage.

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) represents one of the fundamental tools in the decarbonization process, especially for the most carbon-intensive industrial sectors, and will play a key role in achieving the important emission reduction targets set at European level as part of the Green Deal.

Within the framework of the agreement, Eni and Air Liquide will collaborate to identify clusters of hard-to-abate industries in this geographic area and will define the best possible configuration to develop a large-scale CCS program.

In particular, Air Liquide will develop competitive CO₂ abatement solutions, leveraging on its ongoing CCS initiatives in Northern Europe and on its innovative proprietary technology Cryocap^TM able to capture up to 95% of CO₂ emissions from industrial facilities.

Eni, leveraging on its experience in gas fields exploitation and management, will identify the most suitable permanent CO₂ storage locations in the Mediterranean sea.

Luigi Ciarrocchi, Eni’s Director, CCUS, Forestry and Agro-Feedstock, said that “The goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is a pillar of Eni’s strategy. CCS is pivotal in the decarbonisation process, in particular for the most energy and carbon-intensive industrial sectors. By contributing to reduce emissions from hard to abate sectors, we aim to promote a process of environmental and at the same time economic and social sustainability, supporting the continuity of industrial activities, such as, but not limited to, cement and steel, that are central to Italy’s economy.”

Pascal Vinet, Senior Vice President, a member of Air Liquide Executive Committee, supervising Europe Industries, said: “We are pleased to cooperate with Eni in this important decarbonization initiative and leverage our expertise in CO₂ management to concretely contribute to the reduction of industrial carbon emissions in Europe. Supporting the decarbonization of the Industry is one of the strategic pillars of Air Liquide, which is committed to addressing the urgency of climate change and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.”