Energy: Hydrogen, ENEA with research and industry to build a national supply chain

 “The pathway for developing hydrogen has begun and there will be no turning back. The road ahead is long, but our Country has all the skills required in terms of research, innovation and industry to promote the penetration of hydrogen into the energy mix”, said ENEA Director General Giorgio Graditi during the first national event of the Operational Research Plan (POR) on Hydrogen organized by ENEA in collaboration with the RSE and CNR, which took place in Rome at the Pontifical University Antonianum.

 “Hydrogen – added Graditi – could have a short-term perspective for some applications (hard to abate industry), a medium-term one (heavy transport) and long-term (residential) for others”.

The event, which took place two years after the launch of the project, was attended by 220 researchers from all over Italy and brought together representatives of institutions, public research, universities and industry. Speakers included Stefania Crotta, director of the directorate-general for financial programs and incentives (pif) of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (mase), Giulia Monteleone, Head of the ENEA Department of Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources, Viviana Cigolotti, head of the ENEA Division of Technologies and Vectors for Decarbonization, Lidia Armelao, Head of the Department of Chemical Sciences and Materials Technologies of the CNR, and Franco Cotana, CEO of RSE.

The importance of further enhancing the collaboration between research and academia was highlighted, with a view to strengthening the public-private cooperation, systematizing the demand for technological innovation that comes from the industrial world and the ability of research and universities to provide high-quality innovation.

 “The POR hydrogen project – said Monteleone –has further consolidated the coordination and collaboration between research and national academia, with the aim of promoting the creation of a national network of multi-interdisciplinary skills, laboratories and infrastructures along the entire technological and value hydrogen chain, as well as strengthening the technological transfer of research results and products to the industrial supply chains of the sector and related industries”.

ENEA, with funding of 75 million euro, is the implementing body of the Hydrogen POR, funded with 110 million euro as part of the program agreement between MASE and ENEA, while the Cnr and RSE have been assigned 20 and 15 million euro respectively as co-implementing bodies. The objective of the POR is to conduct research activities on the entire hydrogen value chain to support the national industry and the country, making the hydrogen economy sustainable, improving existing technologies and exploring new ones with a neutral and multidisciplinary approach while contributing to the training of new professional figures.