The ENHANCEMENT project – Emissions mitigatioN tHrough cArboN CapturE froM bioENergy and its application in hard to abaTe industry – has officially started. Funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme, the project brings together an international consortium of 13 organisations from 7 European countries, including the Department of Energy of Politecnico di Milano.

Launched on 1 November 2025 and with an overall duration of 42 months, the project aims to accelerate the development and deployment of advanced Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technologies, which are considered a strategic lever for achieving European climate neutrality by 2050. ENHANCEMENT addresses, in an integrated manner, the main barriers currently limiting the large-scale adoption of these solutions, combining technological innovation, techno-economic and environmental analysis, and policy support.

At the core of the project lies the development and validation of a “green” amino acid-based solvent for CO₂ capture, capable of significantly reducing harmful emissions and operational costs. The solution will be integrated with a Heat Pipe Condensing Economiser (HPCE), which enables heat recovery and the removal of moisture and acidic pollutants from flue gases prior to the capture stage, thereby improving the overall energy efficiency of the system.

The developed technologies will be tested and demonstrated under real operating conditions through two demonstrators: a semi-industrial plant at the SINTEF Tiller CO₂Lab (Norway), and a mobile CO₂ capture unit integrated with HPCE technology at a biomass-fired cogeneration plant in Italy. The project will also assess the replicability of the proposed solutions in the steel sector, one of the most challenging industrial sectors to decarbonise.

The Department of Energy of Politecnico di Milano participates in the project with a research team composed of Prof. Matteo Romano, Prof. Manuele Gatti, Prof. Giulio Guandalini and Dr Antonio Conversano, contributing to research activities and to the assessment of the energy, economic and environmental performance of BECCS technologies along the entire value chain.

“Participation in ENHANCEMENT represents a valuable opportunity to contribute to the development of sustainable and industrially applicable CO₂ capture solutions,” the Politecnico di Milano researchers state. “The project’s integrated approach, combining technological innovation with energy analysis and environmental and economic impact assessment, is essential to evaluate the role of these technologies in supporting the ongoing European energy transition.”