During 2008 reclamation was completed at the Cengio site (Savona) of more than 200,000 m2 of land that will be made available for new industrial development, at an estimated cost of around €300 million.

Reclamation work
The realisation of this complex and significant reclamation operation, unique of its kind in Italy, in addition to Eni personnel, involved leading Italian and European companies with extensive use of local labour: overall, around 300 people were employed to render the entire area safe.

This has resulted in the realisation of two objectives, the environmental recovery of the area and the industrial re-launch, providing jobs as per the Programme Agreement signed in December 2000 by Syndial with the ministries of the environment, industry and health, with the Liguria and Piedmont regional councils and the Delegated Commissioner.

With this and similar initiatives, Eni confirms its strong commitment to the sustainable reclamation of disused industrial areas, giving back to the territory important areas for new initiatives and development, while at the same time aiming at their maximum valorisation.

The reclamation stages:

• 2001: characterisation of the area
• 2003: removal of waste deposits
• 2005: protection of the site from flood risks
• 2006: removal of saline waste contained in the storage tanks and recovery of the sites
• 2007: recovery of the Rocchetta Plain area

In May 2008 demolition work ended for the plant and storage tanks at the former Ravenna refinery which ceased production in 1985. The area involved by the demolition extends over an area of 50 hectares and is situated in a key area for the productive and infrastructural development of the city of Ravenna, just a short distance from the city centre, on the Candiano Canal.

The work lasted for 29 months and, with some 60,000 hours of work, no accidents were recorded. At the site there are now plans to remove underground lines, followed by the environmental recovery of the area. Eni and public authorities are working to define the PRUSST project for the sustainable urban re-qualification of the area to be applied to the zone. Moreover, the 37,000 tonnes of ferrous scrap left over from the demolition has been sold for re-use, resulting in a lower environmental impact in terms of CO₂ emissions.

PHOTOGALLERY

<

>

• 
  Former Ravenna Refinery
• 
  Former Ravenna Refinery
• 
  Former Ravenna Refinery

The photo gallery contains images.

Bioremediation consists in a set of technologies that use natural or recombinant micro-organisms to break down toxic and hazardous substances through aerobic and anaerobic processes. These processes can be applied "in situ", exploiting the existing micro-organisms, by introducing bacterial or fungus strains, or "ex situ" in bioreactors.

The Belaym (Egypt)  project's target is to identify the most effective ways to carry out remediation activities of soil contaminated by hydrocarbons in desert areas, such as Belaym, located in the southern peninsula of Sinai. These areas are characterized by differences in levels of contamination. The first phase of the project, which began in May 2007, focused on the treatment of about 12.000 tons of contaminated soil, and was used to test the effectiveness of the Bioremediation technique. Two bio-piles containing soil contaminated by hydrocarbons have been built and the autochthonous bacterial flora was stimulated with a careful selection of nutrients based on phosphorus (P), Potassium (K) and nitrogen (N), with an input of oxygen carried out  by soil turning and water supply through irrigation sprinklers.

During the first two months this technique reduced the average concentration of total hydrocarbons (TPH) from an initial 40-50% to an average of 5%; however in the following period the concentration of the contamination level declined more slowly. This data was expected considering the asymptotic effect of decontamination by this remediation technique. To obtain a significant reduction of contamination levels, phytoremediation as an additional technique was used.

Phytoremediation is a recent process, consisting in a biological treatment of contaminated soil "in situ" or "ex situ" and exploiting both the biological activity of plants (biomass production, filtering of water in the interstices of the soil, accumulation of substances) and  the growth of bacterial flora for depurative purposes. In this case autochthonous flora and two different test plants will be adopted.  A part of these plants will be placed in the former bio – piles ground relocated in – situ, in extreme climate conditions (desert and brackish water), while the other plants will be placed in a logistic area at the Abu Rudeis center, using the former bio-pile ground, where climate conditions are the same but fresh water supply will be guaranteed.

In this phase selections of plants species to be adopted is underway.