Last December saw the launch of the ‘ECCSELLENT – Development of ECCSEL – R.I. Italian facilities: user access, services and long-term sustainability’ project, which aims to strengthen Italian research facilities in the field of carbon dioxide capture, utilisation, transport and storage.

This is a topic of particular importance in the context of efforts to mitigate climate change: alongside improvements in energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources, CCUS (CO2 Capture, Utilisation and Storage) technologies have been identified as a strategic measure in a low-carbon scenario.

Over the next three years, the ECCSELLENT project, set up as part of the European ECCSEL network, will therefore work to develop new technologies and research infrastructures in the CCUS field, while at the same time improving the access, services and sustainability of the network’s laboratories already operating in the CCUS chain, thus strengthening scientific excellence and providing the national research system with the necessary tools to promote the decarbonisation of industry, one of the major challenges facing society.

ECCSELLENT is funded by the Ministry of Universities and Research with €16.5 million under Mission 4 ‘Education and Research’ of the PNRR – Next Generation EU. The partners, coordinated by the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics – OGS, are the University of Bologna, the Politecnico di Milano (in collaboration with LEAP, the energy-environment research centre set up by the Politecnico di Milano), ENEA and the National Research Council – CNR.

Thanks to this important project, the Politecnico di Milano will be equipped with a mobile pilot plant to carry out applied research on CO2 capture processes, which are crucial for the decarbonisation of the most energy-intensive (and difficult to decarbonise) industrial sectors,

stated Manuele Gatti and Matteo Carmelo Romano, professors at the Department of Energy of Politecnico.