Italy

Hydrogen is being included in several decarbonization strategies as a potential contributor in some hard-to-abate applications. Among other challenges hydrogen storage represents a critical aspect to be addressed either for stationary storage or for transporting hydrogen over long distances. Ammonia is being proposed as a potential solution for hydrogen storage as it allows storing hydrogen as a liquid chemical component at mild conditions. Nevertheless the use of ammonia instead of pure hydrogen faces some challenges including the health and environmental issues of handling ammonia and the competition with other markets such as the fertilizer market. In addition the technical and economic efficiency of single steps such as ammonia production by means of the Haber–Bosch process ammonia distribution and storage and possibly the ammonia cracking process to hydrogen affects the overall supply chain. The main purpose of this review paper is to shed light on the main aspects related to the use of ammonia as a hydrogen energy carrier discussing technical economic and environmental perspectives with the aim of supporting the international debate on the potential role of ammonia in supporting the development of hydrogen pathways. The analysis also compares ammonia with alternative solutions for the long-distance transport of hydrogen including liquefied hydrogen and other liquid organic carriers such as methanol.

Legislation regulating the sustainability requirements for hydrogen technologies relies more and more on life cycle assessments (LCAs). Due to different scopes and development processes different pieces of EU legislation refer to different LCA methodologies with differences in the way multifunctional processes (i.e. co-productions recycling and energy recovery) are treated. These inconsistencies arise because incentive mechanisms are not standardized across sectors even though the end product hydrogen remains the same. The goal of this paper is to compare the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of hydrogen from four production pathways depending on the multifunctional approach prescribed by the different EU policies (e.g. using substitution or allocation). The study reveals a large variation in the LCA results. For instance the life-cycle GHG emissions of hydrogen co-produced with methanol is found to vary from 1 kg CO2-equivalent/kg H2 (when mass allocation is considered) to 11 kg CO2-equivalent/kg H2 (when economic allocation is used). These inconsistencies could affect the market (e.g. hydrogen from a certain pathway could be considered sustainable or unsustainable depending on the approach) and the environment (e.g. pathways that do not lead to a global emission reduction could be promoted). To mitigate these potential negative effects we urge for harmonized and strict guidelines to assess the life-cycle GHG emissions of hydrogen technologies in an EU policy context. Harmonization should cover international policies too to avoid the same risks when hydrogen will be traded based on its GHG emissions. The appropriate methodological approach for each production pathway should be chosen by policymakers in collaboration with the LCA community and stakeholders from the industry based on the potential market and environmental consequences of such choice.

In order to promote low-carbon fuels such as hydrogen to decarbonize the maritime sector it is crucial to promote clean fuels and zero-emission propulsion systems in demonstrative projects and to showcase innovative technologies such as fuel cells in vessels operating in local public transport that could increase general audience acceptability thanks to their showcase potential. In this study a short sea journey ferry used in the port of Genova as a public transport vehicle is analyzed to evaluate a ”zero emission propulsion” retrofitting process. In the paper different types of solutions (batteries proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)) and fuels (hydrogen ammonia natural gas and methanol) are investigated to identify the most feasible technology to be implemented onboard according to different aspects: ferry daily journey and scheduling available volumes and spaces propulsion power needs energy storage/fuel tank capacity needed economics etc. The paper presents a multi-aspect analysis that resulted in the identification of the hydrogen-powered PEMFC as the best clean power system to guarantee for this specific case study a suitable retrofitting of the vessel that could guarantee a zero-emission journey

Hydrogen as an energy carrier is very versatile in energy storage applications. Developments in novel sustainable technologies towards a CO2-free society are needed and the exploration of all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) as well as solid-state hydrogen storage applications based on metal hydrides can provide solutions for such technologies. However there are still many technical challenges for both hydrogen storage material and ASSBs related to designing low-cost materials with low-environmental impact. The current materials considered for all-solid-state batteries should have high conductivities for Na+ Mg2+ and Ca2+ while Al3+-based compounds are often marginalised due to the lack of suitable electrode and electrolyte materials. In hydrogen storage materials the sluggish kinetic behaviour of solid-state hydride materials is one of the key constraints that limit their practical uses. Therefore it is necessary to overcome the kinetic issues of hydride materials before discussing and considering them on the system level. This review summarizes the achievements of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) innovative training network (ITN) ECOSTORE the aim of which was the investigation of different aspects of (complex) metal hydride materials. Advances in battery and hydrogen storage materials for the efficient and compact storage of renewable energy production are discussed.

Nowadays decarbonization of energy economy is a topical theme and several pathways are under discussion. Gaseous fuels will play a primary role during this transition and the production of renewable or low carbon-impact gaseous fuels is necessary to deal with this challenge. Decarbonization will be sustained by an increasing share of renewables which production intermittency can be critical for the energy system. Renewable hydrogen generation is a viable solution since this energy vector can be produced from electricity with a fast response and injected in the existing natural gas infrastructures granting storage capacity and easy transport. Parallelly to the renewable-based energy production fossil-based energy can be exploited with a low carbon impact using methane from reservoirs to produce hydrogen capturing CO2. The mentioned scenarios will lead to hydrogen enrichment of natural gas which impact on the infrastructures is being actively studied. The effect on end-user devices instead is poorly analysed but is fundamental to be assessed. This paper highlights the impact on the widely used premixed condensing boilers which will be fired with hydrogen enriched natural gas in the near future and the changes required to components.

This paper discusses the techno-economic assessment of hydrogen production from biogas with conventional systems. The work is part of the European project BIONICO whose purpose is to develop and test a membrane reactor (MR) for hydrogen production from biogas. Within the BIONICO project steam reforming (SR) and autothermal reforming (ATR) have been identified as well-known technologies for hydrogen production from biogas. Two biogases were examined: one produced by landfill and the other one by anaerobic digester. The purification unit required in the conventional plants has been studied and modeled in detail using Aspen Adsorption. A pressure swing adsorption system (PSA) with two and four beds and a vacuum PSA (VPSA) made of four beds are compared. VPSA operates at sub-atmospheric pressure thus increasing the recovery: results of the simulations show that the performances strongly depend on the design choices and on the gas feeding the purification unit. The best purity and recovery values were obtained with the VPSA system which achieves a recovery between 50% and 60% at a vacuum pressure of 0.1 bar and a hydrogen purity of 99.999%. The SR and ATR plants were designed in Aspen Plus integrating the studied VPSA model and analyzing the behavior of the systems at the variation of the pressure and the type of input biogas. The SR system achieves a maximum efficiency calculated on the LHV of 52% at 12 bar while the ATR of 28% at 18 bar. The economic analysis determined a hydrogen production cost of around 5 €/kg of hydrogen for the SR case.

Global climate policy commitments are encouraging the development of EU energy policies aimed at paving the way for cleaner energy systems. This article reviews key decarbonization drivers for Italy considering higher environmental targets from recent European Union climate policies. Energy efficiency the electrification of final consumption the development of green fuels increasing the share of renewable energy sources in the electric system and carbon capture and storage are reviewed. A 2030 scenario is designed to forecast the role of decarbonization drivers in future energy systems and to compare their implementation with that in the current situation. Energy efficiency measures will reduce final energy consumption by 15.6% as primary energy consumption will decrease by 19.8%. The electrification of final consumption is expected to increase by 6.08%. The use of green fuels is estimated to triple as innovative fuels may go to market at scale to uphold the ambitious decarbonization targets set in the transportation sector. The growing trajectory of renewable sources in the energy mix is confirmed as while power generation is projected to increase by 10% the share of renewables in that generation is expected to increase from 39.08% to 78.16%. Capture and storage technologies are also expected to play an increasingly important role. This article has policy implications and serves as a regulatory reference in the promotion of decarbonization investments.

This study proposes a multi-level model predictive control (MPC) for a grid-connected wind farm paired to a hydrogen-based storage system (HESS) to produce hydrogen as a fuel for commercial road vehicles while meeting electric and contractual loads at the same time. In particular the integrated system (wind farm + HESS) should comply with the “fuel production” use case as per the IEA-HIA report where the hydrogen production for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) has the highest unconditional priority among all the objectives. Based on models adopting mixed-integer constraints and dynamics the problem of external hydrogen consumer requests optimal load demand tracking and electricity market participation is solved at different timescales to achieve a long-term plan based on forecasts that then are adjusted at real-time. The developed controller will be deployed onto the management platform of the HESS which is paired to a wind farm established in North Norway within the EU funded project HAEOLUS. Numerical analysis shows that the proposed controller efficiently manages the integrated system and commits the equipment so as to comply with the requirements of the addressed scenario. The operating costs of the devices are reduced by 5% which corresponds to roughly 300 commutations saved per year for devices.

Green hydrogen exploitation plays a crucial role in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Hydrogen in fact provides a number of key benefits for the energy system due to its integrability with other clean technologies for energy production and consumption. This paper is aimed at presenting the project of recovery of an abandoned industrial area located in central Italy by developing a site for the production of green hydrogen. To this aim the analysis of the territorial and industrial context of the area allowed us to design the project phases and to define the sizing criteria of the hydrogen production plant. The results of a preliminary cost–benefit analysis show that a huge initial investment is required and that in the short term the project is sustainable only with a very large public grant. On the other hand in the long term the project is sustainable and the benefits significantly overcome the costs.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors affecting hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies (“CCS”) policies taking into consideration Fossil Fuel Consumption Oil Reserves the Debt/GDP Ratio the Trilemma Index and other variables with respect to OECD countries. STATA 17 was used for the analysis. The results confirm the hypothesis that countries with high fossil fuel consumption and oil reserves are investing in blue hydrogen and CCS towards a “zero-carbon-emission” perspective. Moreover countries with a good Debt/GDP ratio act most favorably to green policies by raising their Public Debt because Foreign Direct Investments are negatively correlated with those kinds of policies. Future research should exploit Green Finance policy decision criteria on green and blue hydrogen.