Research and new technologies

Technology is at the heart of Eni's strategy and transformation and is developed with an integrated approach that can propose different solutions to achieve energy transition goals. Technological innovation is achieved thanks to the synergy between in-house research, advanced engineering skills, expertise and digital tools using our big data and the great computing power of Eni's supercomputers. Expertise and innovative projects are enriched by collaborations with universities, research centres and Open Innovation activities.

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Technology lies at the heart of our strategy

Research aimed at yielding concrete benefits

Eni is a technology-intensive global energy company. Innovation is the tool with which we address the complexity of the challenges posed by the energy transition, with the aim of producing real benefits for people. Thanks to new proprietary and breakthrough technologies developed in our innovation ecosystem, we aim to offer increasingly decarbonized products, services and solutions, also by creating new business models. To continue to create value with all our activities, we develop projects that enable us to pursue ever greater operational excellence. Each new result from Eni’s technological innovation contributes to help us achieve our Net Zero target by 2050. Each new result from Eni’s technological innovation contributes to help us achieve our Net Zero target by 2050.

An approach that considers the entire value chain

Eni's products and services cover a variety of sectors and markets, encompassing both industrial applications and use by individual customers. Innovation considers production cycles in their entirety and interconnections, from origin to end use. This kind of wide-ranging vision, accompanied and facilitated by the strong impulse of digitalisation makes it possible to accelerate technological innovation and achieve business goals. This approach also fits in with the principle of technology neutrality, according to which there is no single solution to achieve the energy transition, but that we need a technology mix that can be adapted to different applications and needs.

  • Energy from renewables (electricity and heat)
  • Energy from fusion (to generate electric and thermal energy)
  • Capture, utilisation and storage of CO₂ - CCUS (decarbonization of processes)
  • Circular Economy (biofuels and sustainable chemistry)
  • Environment (ecosystem restoration)

Among the most significant achievements of Eni innovation in these areas are: development projects on agro-energy and the EcofiningTM technology to obtain biofuels from waste and raw materials of biological origin that do not compete with food use, the production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass through the Proesa® process in the field of sustainable chemistry, the chemical recycling of plastic through the Hoop(TM) process, scientific collaborations with MIT, CFS, Enea and CNR in the research on magnetic confinement fusion, the ISWEC system to generate electricity from sea waves, innovative systems to produce heat through  Concentrating Solar Power - CSP, the new perovskite photovoltaic cells as well as systems and products in the area of CO2 capture, storage and utilisation.

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Eni's main collaborations with universities and research centres

Alliances for the future of energy and the planet under the banner of innovation and the energy transition.

Eni innovation takes advantage of new business models which include Open Innovation tools such as Corporate Venture Capital, the Corporate Venture Builder and the establishment of companies. This way, he skills of our people, the company's most valuable resource, work in synergy with start-ups, universities, research centres and technology companies to develop cutting-edge ideas and programmes.

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Eni Award: our energy science award

A world-class award for research and technological innovation in the world of energy.

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Magnetic confinement fusion

We support the development of energy solutions that are not yet available but have great potential, such as magnetic confinement fusion.

Eni 2050 lab

The “Eni 2050 lab” has been created in the area of the former Gazometro in Rome. It is a veritable technological hub dedicated to illustrating innovative projects and technologies that Eni is developing in its research centres, a multi-functional space that houses also an open laboratory, an area for the monitoring of technologies and an area for the 3D visualisation of numerical models of the subsurface developed thanks to advanced technological applications and the computing power of the Eni Green Data Center's super computers. At the Eni 2050 lab, visitors will have the opportunity to discover some of Eni's technologies for decarbonization, including: the ISWEC system, which produces energy from sea waves; aerial and submarine robotics (Roger and Clean Sea); advanced biofuels produced from energy crops that do not compete with food and from agro-food industry residue; the technology supply chain of CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilisation & Storage) for the capture, utilisation and storage of CO2; some technologies for environmental remediation (e-Hyrec, e-Lorec and Phytoremediation) and an evocative model of magnetic confinement fusion.