Research Center for Non Conventional Energy

The activities are focused on the R&D programme Along with Petroleum, launched by Eni in 2007, which aims to achieve technological breakthroughs in the use of solar energy and biomass – which Eni believes to be the renewable sources with the highest potential for large-scale sustainable use, from an environmental and economic perspective.
The Centre is also active in the development of innovative technologies for environmental remediation and waste treatment and disposal.
At the same time, the Centre continues to make a contribution to the activities of Eni's Divisions and to Polimeri Europa in the development of technologies related to the core business.
There are currently some 150 researchers working at the Centre.

From the launch of the Along with Petroleum programme, the Research Centre has already achieved some important results: the first solar cell made with innovative organic materials has been produced in its labs and a number of original materials have been synthesised that are able to function as spectrum converters, i.e. to increase the fraction of the solar spectrum that an be converted by a photovoltaic system.
These excellent results can also be seen from the patents applied for in 2010: Donegani researchers are co-inventors in 28 new patent applications, corresponding to 32% of the total applications made by eni.
The Centre's technological research and development activities are directly coordinated by Eni's Studies & Researches Department and carried out in collaboration with universities and research centres in Italy (e.g. the Polytechnics of Turin and Milan), in Europe (e.g. the Universities of Warsaw and Porto), and the United States (e.g. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University) with which Eni has built, and intends to expand, an effective scientific network.

The research objectives pursued by the Centre for solar energy can be summarised as follows:

• the development of photovoltaic cells based on organic and/or polymeric materials with a view to reducing the cost of producing electricity from solar and overcoming current limitations of silicon-based technologies;
• syntheses of photoactive materials able to increase the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic panels;
• the photo-production of hydrogen by water dissociation using solar energy;
• the development of hybrid systems for the production of electricity (with the possible co-production of desalinated water) based on concentrated solar power and combined cycle technologies, also with a view to a more efficient use of remote reserves of natural gas.

In the field of the production and development of biomass energy, the Centre's activities are focused on the following:

• Biomass to Liquids (BtL): the conversion of non-edible biomass in biofuels by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (second generation biofuels);
• the use of microalgae, yeasts and bacteria in the production of bio-fuels (third generation);
• Solid waste conversion: thermo-chemical conversion of the organic component of municipal solid waste and sludge produced by wastewater urban treatment plants into a bio-oil that can be treated by existing refinery processes and converted into biofuels for transportation;
• the identification of highly productive plants cultivated exclusively for energy purposes, aimed at significantly reducing the production costs of biofuels and the areas under cultivation.

Activities related to environmental issues include:

• the remediation of contaminated land by native plant species suitable to remove contaminants from the soil or enhance their degradation thanks to the bacterial flora in the rhizosphere; at the same time these plants can be a source of biomass or other energy carriers (phytoremediation);
• the development of passive treatment systems for groundwater, such as
  permeable reactive barriers (PRB) by using absorbent materials (En-Z-Lite®) and / or nanofiltration membranes;
• the development of materials and methodologies for
  monitoring the level of soil and water pollution and its degree of risk (bioavailability and Risk Analysis) in order to promote the use of the Natural Attenuation;
• the development of in situ electro-kinetic technologies (EKRT) for the remediation of soils contaminated by heavy metals;
•  technologies for industrial waste neutralization based on flameless combustion with oxygen;
•   the development of hydrophobic materials (to separate water from oil) and technologies for the recovery of oil spills in marine environments.