Italy -Malpensa Airport hydrogen valley project.
The future of Malpensa and its territory will be in hydrogen. The Municipality of Busto Arsizio, Sea (the airport managing company), Rina (the multinational inspection, certification and engineering consultancy company) and Confindustria Varese have formed an alliance to develop, around the big northern Italian airport, the first hydrogen valley in Italy – as well as one of the first in Europe – in the airport sector.
The EU is supporting the initiative with funds from the Horizon Europe programme.
Malpensa, Italian’s biggest cargo airport, is located at the center of an area of great importance for the regional and national freight traffic: an ideal place for the birth of a hydrogen valley, which would allow the creation of a hydrogen ecosystem covering the entire value chain (production, storage, transportation and consumption) integrating local/regional assets in the Busto Arsizio/Malpensa area.
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Mr. Armando Brunini, CEO of SEA, explained:
The EU funding for the creation of the Malpensa hydrogen valley allows us to test the development of hydrogen in an airport.
“Sea, together with selected partners, will play the role of facilitator and enabler for the introduction of the new technology. The main field of application of this project is automotive, but it is the first phase to develop the know-how and the enabling conditions (technological, regulatory, management, logistics) for the aeronautical use of hydrogen, according to a system approach which is the only one that will allow the future development of this innovation in the transport sector, which is essential, together with other solutions such as SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuels, ed.), which are also fundamental for the process of decarbonization”.
Thanks to cutting-edge technologies, it will be possible to create an ecosystem that implements the entire hydrogen supply chain – from production to storage, from transportation to consumption -, involving the network of local businesses so that they can, in the future, take advantage of this new energy.
The partners, including French, Spanish and Greek companies specialized in production, research and development in various application areas of hydrogen-related technologies, will contribute, each with their own skills and capabilities, to the study useful solutions for the creation of the hydrogen valley .
Particular attention will be paid to optimizing the production costs of hydrogen, one of the most valid energy sources for decarbonization. The objective is to lay the foundations for the use of hydrogen in airports (Malpensa can become a model for other airports) contributing to cut climate-changing emissions and extending the benefits also to other manufacturing sectors, primarily the most energy-consuming ones.
Roberto Grassi, president of Confindustria Varese (Univa), explained:
Once again the EU trusted this territory, as 25 years ago supported the development of Malpensa 2000 (the new terminal was inaugurated on 25 October 1998, ed.) including it among the major Ten-T infrastructure development projects.
“Also by virtue of that choice, the EU is adding new resources. With this project Malpensa emerges once again as a fundamental driver of development for the benefit of the entire area.”
As regards the Malpensa airport grounds, the project, which will end in September 2027, will consist in the application of technical solutions to adapt airport vehicles which can be turned to hybrid propulsion based on fuel cells to power electric motors as alternative to internal combustion engines. At the same time, suitable solutions will be studied to create, in an environment with very high safety standards, a system to ensure the supply of hydrogen to airport vehicles.
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MALPENSA AIRPORT HYDROGEN VALLEY PROJECT, September 21, 2023
