Air Liquide, Eni join forces for industrial carbon capture and storage

Industrial gas major Air Liquide is set to collaborate with energy firm Eni to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors of industry in the Mediterranean.

As part of Europe’s ‘Green Deal’, the collaboration agreement aims to ultimately result in the development of a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) programme that reduces emissions in carbon intensive sectors that are notoriously hard to abate, such as the cement and steel industries. 

The initiative will see Air Liquide utilising its Cryocap technology for carbon capture whereas storage identification will be led by Eni by leveraging its experience in gas fields exploitation and management. 

Calling it one of the company’s ‘strategic pillars’, Pascal Vinet, Senior Vice President, member of Air Liquide Executive Committee, supervising Europe Industries, added that Air Liquide is committed to addressing the urgency of climate change to reach carbo neutrality by 2050. 

The attempt to reach carbon neutrality is a key component of the European Green Deal – an effort by the European Commission to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in Europe by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. 

The initiative is financed through the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan and the EU’s seven-year budget. 

“CCS is pivotal in the decarbonisation process, in particular for the most energy and carbon-intensive industrial sectors,” commented Luigi Ciarrocchi, Director, CCUS, Forestry and Agro-Feedstock, Eni. 

“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.”