Since 2001, we have been engaged with Eni Rewind in an environmental clean-up of the Porto Torres industrial site. In 2010, we developed an environmental intervention plan, which was shared with the relevant authorities and local community and included in the Green Chemicals Protocol (2011). To ensure a sustainable approach to reclamation operations, the site has a plant for producing and distributing demineralised water. The recovery of water purified by groundwater treatment plants means the use of natural resources is limited. To further support reclamation operations for sustainability projects, Eni Rewind has made available 500 of the 1,200 hectares it owns. Porto Torres hosts the largest photovoltaic park ever made by Eni in its renewables development initiatives. With a capacity of 31 MW, the plant assures an annual production of 50 GWh, 70% of which is intended for the companies working on the industrial site, offering savings of around 26,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
In 2019, we built a 10km barrier for groundwater reclamation. It works with 103 wells that extract water, which is then treated in 5 plants with a total flow rate of 340 m3 per hour (2.5 million m3 per year). Part of this, equal to 750,000 m3 in 2019, is subsequently sent to reverse osmosis plants, where demineralised water is produced, this is then reused in the Versalis plants, enhancing the value of the resource and reducing the use of natural resources. In Porto Torres we also use e-hyrec technology, patented by Eni Rewind. The automatic device, placed inside the wells, enables the selective separation of aqueous and oily water, recovering the hydrocarbon without extracting water, while traditional systems take a prominent part of water (about 70-80%). There is a consequent improvement in terms of the effectiveness and efficiency of groundwater reclamation.