Agreement to build a plant of hydrogen production in Sardinia: signed by Italgas, the third largest natural gas distribution company in Europe, and CRS4, the Research Center of the Sardinian Technology Park. The plant will be of the "power to gas" type, ie it will use clean electricity from renewable sources to produce sustainable fuels such as green hydrogen and synthetic methane.
Furthermore, the renewable gas production plant will be connected to Italgas' new "native digital" distribution networks and made up of a park for the self-production of electricity from renewable sources, an electrolyser capable of producing oxygen and hydrogen starting from water and a methanation section for the transformation of hydrogen into synthetic natural gas. The aim of the project is to test the production of gas from renewable sources and its potential use for supply hydrogen to industrial users on the island and hydrogen and synthetic methane to domestic users, mixing it with natural gas according to specific specifications.
The plant will also be able to use excess renewable energy which, instead of being dissipated, will be used to produce gas to be stored inside the structure.
“The Italgas and CRS4 project – commented Paolo Gallo, Italgas Chief Executive Officer – reconciles the need to identify new and more efficient forms of energy conservation with the possibility of producing renewable gases such as hydrogen and synthetic methane for the benefit of the Sardinian territory and its productive activities being able to count on the use of native digital networks that we are building on the island. For this reason, we are delighted to be able to develop such an innovative project with the collaboration of a center of excellence for Sardinia and to do so in a region where we have planned another 400 million investments by 2026".
“The project – added Giacomo Cao, sole administrator of CRS4 -, in which the Center participates with the researcher Alberto Varone of the HPC sector for energy and the environment, fits into the broader framework of the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions with a transversal approach. In fact, several studies argue that hydrogen could represent the solution to complement renewable electricity in complex sectors to be decarbonised such as industry and heating where the use of electricity is difficult”.
