Saipem SpA (Milan, Italy; www.saipem.com) has successfully launched the fourth and final experimental phase of the pilot plant for CO₂ capture, which is part of the European ACCSESS project involving Saipem’s proprietary CO2 capture technology “CO2 Solutions”. Saipem is one of the main industrial partners of the ACCSESS project (www.projectaccsess.eu), coordinated by SINTEF Energy Research and co-funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme.
This milestone confirms the effectiveness of Saipem’s proprietary CO₂ capture technology, developed for applications in hard-to-abate industrial sectors and based on an enzyme-catalyzed solvent. It also demonstrates the reliability of the technology under real operating conditions and its industrial-scale applicability, further strengthening Saipem’s role as a strategic player in the decarbonization and the energy transition.
In particular, the CO2 Solutions technology underpins the modular technological solution Bluenzyme™, developed by Saipem to provide plug-and-play CO₂ capture systems that reduce operational complexity and ensure rapid integration across different industrial contexts.
The pilot plant, which operates with Saipem’s proprietary technology, is currently installed at Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Górażdże, Poland – the largest in Europe – to treat the flue gases from the cement plant’s chimney. It can operate both with the traditional CO₂ capture absorber column and with an innovative absorber known as the Rotating Packed Bed (RPB). This is a rotating system that enhances capture efficiency while substantially reducing space requirements. The plant is currently operating at full capacity and, in both configurations, has reached its design CO₂ capture capacity (2 tonnes per day).
This testing phase follows previous campaigns carried out at the Celsio Waste-to-Energy plant and at the Mongstad Technology Center, both in Norway, as well as at the Stora Enso paper mill in Sweden. It represents the final experimental stage of the ACCSESS project.