Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
Transport: ENEA and ANSFISA together for safety, hydrogen and innovative technologies
The focus of the agreement is on studies and experiments for railways, motorways and fixed installations.
Studies, research and monitoring for the use of hydrogen (fuel cells), LNG and bio-LNG in rail, road and rapid mass transport. This is the goal of the memorandum of understanding signed a few days ago by Gilberto Dialuce, president of ENEA, and Domenico De Bartolomeo, director of ANSFISA (National Agency for Rail and Road Infrastructure Safety).
“For some time now ANSFISA has been working on a study aimed at a new regulation for the safe movement of particular categories of vehicles using hydrogen", said Director Domenico De Bartolomeo. “The studies and experiments that we can perform with ENEA”, he added, “represent a great technical and scientific opportunity to understand how to exploit this innovation, which is very interesting for both the road and rail sectors with a view to greater efficiency and sustainability”.
“ENEA operates in the context of the NRRP (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), offering technical and scientific support to the various ministries and their initiatives, providing technologies, processes and solutions for the energy transition and decarbonisation of the energy and transport sectors”, noted President Gilberto Dialuce. “This agreement”, he added, “will enable joint studies, research, testing and monitoring for the use of hydrogen in rail and road transport. One of our objectives is the development of replicable and expandable best practices for the correct design, implementation, installation and use of plants and processes related to technologies employing hydrogen and its derivatives and end uses in rail and road, with particular regard to the lines and infrastructures identified by the NRRP, NCP (National Complementary Plan) and implementing ministerial decrees”.
As part of the collaboration, the impact of hydrogen refuelling facilities on rail and road will also be analysed. The overall objective of the agreement is to pool skills and technologies within the scope of specialised activities to help develop, implement and prepare the rules and authorisations necessary for the launch of projects to innovate and improve the fields of transport, energy and sustainable mobility, also related to the use of national and EU funds, the Next Generation EU and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).
More specifically, the joint working group that was set up with the signing of the agreement will focus on the use of new fuels in rail and road transport, support the preparation of technical and procedural regulations for the safety of rail transport with hydrogen-powered trains and contribute to the development of new technologies. For roads, studies will be carried out on how to reduce emissions from heavy road transport and identify innovative systems to better exploit the existing road infrastructure and plan the construction of new works, to assess the adequacy of major civil works such as bridges and tunnels, and to define safety regulations, standards and procedures. Electro-mobility and the management of static and dynamic electricity supply and charging networks are also being studied.