Fifty million in investments over the next four years to create a pole dedicated to the research and production of proton exchange membranes – MEA, Membrane Electrode Assemblies – which play a central role in the process of electrolysis of water to produce green hydrogen using renewable energy sources. This is the great intuition of Giorgio Girondi, former Chairman of UFI Filters Group, who after seven years of research in the hydrogen sector decided to find a new tech company, led by CEO Marco Lazzaroni. UFI HYDROGEN in Italy will play a central role in the process of decarbonising transport, but also industry.

Read the full article that appeared a few days ago in one of the most authoritative voices on the Italian economic-financial scene, Il Sole 24 Ore.

Article dated 27/04/2024 by Barbara Ganz.

Copyright Il Sole 24 Ore.

Trento, UFI creates a hub for green hydrogen

Estimated 50 million investments over four years for production and research

Fifty million euros will be invested over the next four years to create a productive research centre in Trentino in the field of proton exchange membranes. UFI Hydrogen is a tech company that is the brainchild of entrepreneur Giorgio Girondi, former president of UFI Filters – a Group based in the Veronese town of Nogarole Rocca, today present in 21 countries with over 4 thousand employees and about 600 million in turnover, specialising in filtration in various fields (from automotive, aerospace and nautical to specific applications for industry) with products and technical expertise present from Formula 1 (Ferrari and other racing teams), to the European space vehicle ExoMars. Since 2017, the UFI Group has begun to invest in the study and then in the production of advanced filter materials, aimed at developing technological innovations for the hydrogen sector: ‘This is,’ Girondi explains, ‘the only possible source for energy-intensive productions, typically hard to abate, but also for the mobility of large trucks, ships and aircraft, for which electrification alone is unthinkable.

In terms of competitive positioning and growth potential, UFI Hydrogen is the only company in Italy specialising in green hydrogen ‘MEA CCM’ PEM membrane technology, both for production through electrolysis and for consumption through fuel cells, and is part of a group with less than 10 players at global level: this in the face of market estimates for green hydrogen that are growing strongly to meet the 2030 Agenda targets.

UFI Hydrogen is developing the ‘core’ component of electrolyser fuel cells, i.e. membranes enriched with platinum and iridium catalysts that make it possible in electrolysers to split water with the release of hydrogen molecules, and in fuel cells to produce electricity through the injection of hydrogen, used as a zero-emission fuel. At the new site in Serravalle, Trentino, the research already underway will be joined by production activities. The site will be operational by the autumn of 2024, on an initial area of 14 thousand square metres – 6 thousand of which will be indoors. We focus on the best skills and we are practically a Tower of Babel: we have attracted personnel from halfway around the world, very high-level profiles, Turkey, Germany, Iran, Israel, Korea, and even the so-called ‘return brains’, who came from Naples to Cambridge and have now returned for this occasion,’ Girondi explains.

Why in Trentino? ‘Because here there was the possibility of a partnership with the Autonomous Province and the Fondazione Bruno Kessler, a centre of excellence at international level in the field of science and technology,’ Girondi emphasises. Today FBK operates in this field with the Sustainable energy centre, and with which UFI has a strategic agreement to collaborate on innovation. Together they are working on the development of next-generation CCMs (Catalyst coated membranes) MEAs (membrane electrode assemblies) for high-performance electrolysers with a special focus on the study of the recovery and recycling of production materials.

Not only: if hydrogen is the future as a clean energy source, since its production does not release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, much depends on the cost, which in turn depends on the renewable energies involved: solar, wind and hydro. And this is where the lay of the land in Trentino comes into play, with hydroelectric power plants along the Adige River already in existence, without having to think about construction costs.

An area with a natural vocation, but also one of planning and investment: in 2014, the first plant in Italy for the production, storage and distribution of green hydrogen, i.e. generated with the sole use of renewable energy sources, was inaugurated in south Bolzano, the first piece of an ambitious strategy that sees the Brennero motorway create a ‘Green Corridor’ across the Alps in the long term.

Article dated 27/04/2024 by Barbara Ganz. Copyright Il Sole 24 Ore.