Hydrogen might be the future of industry

According to many experts, hydrogen will play a leading role in the decarbonization of the energy sector, as it’s going to become the main energy source in the next decades. However, the major Italian companies have taken a different stand on some aspects of the transition – how to do it and how long it will take.

Managers and operators are constantly debating on these crucial issues for the energy future of the country, as different positions and necessities stand.

In favour of
Enea has been asking for long time regulations and incentives to get hydrogen in its gas pipelines. The goal is to break down the bureaucratic barriers, send encouraging signs to the investors and strengthen the cooperation among the States of the Union.

Snam has asked Europe for an integrated strategy among the countries, by taking advantage from the networks and infrastructures already existing. The goal, according to Snam, is to make hydrogen competitive in five years, opening up the market to as many investors as possible.

Eni is betting on hydrogen expansion too. The company’s leaders have pointed out that green hydrogen represents only 2% of global hydrogen available, mostly because of the high costs of the production process. Once technology improvements will cut costs, hydrogen will probably become the first energy source in the industrial sector.

More cautious
Many companies are sceptical about the hydrogen advance. Enel is one of these. According to the first Italian electricity company, Europe should not promote the use of hydrogen in sectors which can be decarbonised through a lower costs electrification.

For Enel, hydrogen should play a role in categories, which, for structural reasons, cannot be efficiently reconverted to electrical power.
Edison, major energy supplier, is for a more gradual approach. The company supports a preparatory phase dedicated to researches, then pilot projects and regulatory framework study.

The University of Turin has pointed out that hydrogen technologies still need to be studied before complex industries applications. Also, according to Turin’s operators, many initiatives in Europe risk to overlap, causing energy waste and conflicts among the projects. 

According to H2IT experts, hydrogen has still many obstacles to overcome: technologies are not completely ready yet and produce high costs. There are also still very few demo projects and a lack of reference standards.