16-02-2021

Enel Green Power and Saras team up to develop green hydrogen

Enel Green Power and Saras signed a memorandum of intent to develop a green hydrogen project in Sardinia. The solution being studied involves using a 20 MW electrolyzer powered by renewable energy produced onsite to provide green hydrogen to be used as a raw material in the Saras refinery at the Sarroch industrial site in the province of Cagliari.

"The signing of this memorandum of intent, confirms the Enel Group's commitment to promoting the development of green hydrogen in Italy and worldwide, accelerating the energy transition,” said Salvatore Bernabei, CEO of Enel Green Power. “We are constantly seeking partnerships to identify the best applications for this technology, particularly in industrial sectors that cannot be electrified and with emissions that are harder to reduce, including the chemical industry sector."

"We at Saras have been focusing on the challenges of energy transition for some time now, and in recent years we have strengthened our skill base with a series of projects designed to significantly reduce the refinery's carbon footprint,” said Dario Scaffardi, CEO of Saras. “This collaboration with Enel Green Power allows us to develop with an ideal partner one of these projects; that is the production and use of green hydrogen, now considered one of the strategies with the greatest potential for the decarbonization of refining processes and the production of new generation fuels. Our Sarroch site is particularly suited, due to its size, location and structural characteristics, to develop and host a green hydrogen production project with clear potential for development and growth."

In the context of the energy transition, hydrogen can make a valuable contribution to the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries such as the chemicals, aviation, maritime and non-electrified rail transport sectors, provided it is produced sustainably.

Enel Green Power is committed to implementing and developing projects for the production and use of 'green' or 'renewable' hydrogen, produced via electrolysis of water powered exclusively by renewable electricity. Therefore, the Group has begun to look at new business models that include the supply of green hydrogen for the decarbonization of industrial sectors, with partnerships and projects already under development in Chile, Spain, the United States and Italy.

Saras has technological capabilities and know-how in the production and management of hydrogen, and currently has several studies underway to explore various decarbonization processes in the production and use of this energy vector. Through a distributed network, hydrogen is an integral part of Saras' refining process for its use in hydrocracking and hydrotreatment processes. It is now provided by the IGCC complex and two reforming units on the industrial site.