Energy: New hydrogen/methane separation plant established at ENEA Casaccia

ENEA has built a pilot plant at the Casaccia Research Center (Rome) for deblending hydrogen from methane mixtures using membrane technology. Housed in a container, this prototype for deblending is one of the innovative units to be integrated into the Hydrogen Demo Valley, currently under construction at the research center as part of Mission Innovation, the international cooperation program to accelerate innovation in decarbonization technologies.

“Hydrogen is widely recognized as an extremely flexible energy carrier, due to its ability to bridge different energy systems” pointed out ENEA researcher Alberto Giaconia, head of the Hydrogen and New Energy Carriers Laboratory, part of the Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources Department (TERIN-DEC-H2V).

Developed as part of the Electric System Research activities ^[1]through collaboration between ENEA, SIAD S.p.A. and Tecno Project Industriale TPI (a SIAD group company), the plant can be easily used on an industrial scale. Membrane technology is suitable for use in Power-to-Methane, the technology for transforming surplus renewable energy into synthetic methane, which opens up new opportunities for the use of hydrogen.

Hydrogen can be distributed through the gas network in various forms: pure hydrogen or as a blend with other gases, including methane, traditionally used in gas networks (currently, hydrogen can be fed into the natural gas network at percentages of up to 2% by volume). “Integrating flexible and sustainable technologies for hydrogen separation and recovery from gas mixtures to achieve high purity, is therefore critical” concluded Giaconia.