(Finance) – ENEA and ENAC (National Authority for Civil Aviation) have created the first guidelines on use hydrogen in airports with a series of actions and paths that aim the decarbonisation of air transport. It is a real manual, available online and entitled Hydrogen in the airport logistics chain, with operational suggestions that start from the analysis of the regulatory context and the classification of the airports in terms of traffic, to get to customized measures according to the size and type of users.
Are five The categories in which the airports are divided, from large community to those of territorial interest. For each category, the estimate of the needs are defined, the evaluation of the production potential and/or the supply of hydrogen and the calculation of CO2 emissions that can be avoided.
In the guidelines Useful indications are also included to verify the adequacy of the infrastructures already existing in airports, for example in terms of availability of sites suitable for the production and storage of hydrogen inside or near the hub. The selection of suitable sites, in fact, must take into account several factors, including proximity to renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaic systems, the availability of space, safety and accessibility.
The guidelines Two “study cases”, the airports of Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa, selected following a announcement published by ENAC as part of the designor Saves (Sustainable Aviation Vectors for Energy Transition). The airport, public and private managers were invited to present their design ideas, with respect to which the technical and economic conditions necessary for the introduction of hydrogen to the airports have been assessed and strategic actions identified to guarantee feasibility and sustainability in the long term.
As the General Manager of ENEA observed Giorgio Graditi During the conference “The Italia system for the reconciliation of air transport with the environment”, “the Saves project put multidisciplinary skills to the system. The aviation sector is doing concrete things, already in place, and is ready more than others to face the energy transition, thanks to a structured logistical organization that can facilitate the implementation of virtuous initiatives also for the benefit of the surrounding realities “.
For his part, the director of the Energy Technologies Department and renewable sources of Enea, Giulia Monteleone He observed that “the publication of the guidelines and the activity conducted within the Saves project with ENAC, Airports of Rome, Sea and all the stakeholders involved represents a virtuous model of collaboration between industry, institutions and research, in order to encourage a common path for the penetration of energy carriers with low environmental impact in the sector airport, making it at the same time an example of ecological transition replicable in industrial contexts and local communities “.
Currently, as we read in the guidelines, “LAnd main barriers to the spread of hydrogen are economic and regulatory in nature. However, the airport sector can play a reference roleor in overcoming these obstacles. On the one hand, the concentration of potential users and production infrastructures within a single hub allows you to reach economies of scale and improve the economic sustainability of the projects. On the other, the highly regulated character of airports makes them ideal environments for testing and developing innovative solutions that can act as a reference for the evolution of the regulatory framework “.