Snam launching Italy’s Hydrogen Innovation Center

Snam has announced the launch of the Hydrogen Innovation Center, Italy’s first national center of excellence for hydrogen technologies, with the objective of bringing together industrial partners and university research centers to accelerate the development of the sector and thereby contributing to achieving national and European climate targets.

“The mission of the Hydrogen Innovation Center – said Cosma Panzacchi, EVP Hydrogen of Snam – is to build a strategic alliance between business and research to consolidate the Italian hydrogen value chain and encourage the creation of new companies and projects, also through the launch of an acceleration programme. The aim is to propose the first projects to the market and to extend the partnership network abroad within the next two years”.

The first site of the Hydrogen Innovation Center will be opened in Modena, under a collaboration agreement between Snam and UNIMORE (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia). Other hubs in the country will follow, including one with the Polytechnic University of Milan; by the end of 2021, an overseas hub will also be established, in collaboration with a prestigious university in the United States.

Snam’s Hydrogen Innovation Center will continue the collaborations already in place with hydrogen research centers, including the partnership with ENEA for the Hydrogen Valley in Casaccia (Rome). The Hydrogen Innovation Center’s research and testing activities will cover the entire hydrogen chain, from production technologies to transport and storage infrastructures and end uses, such as industrial applications (steel industry) and transport (fuel cell cars and trucks, ships and trains).

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