the hydrogen market | Italy

1.1 Definition and scope of study

The Hydrogen, known with the chemical formula “H2”, has different applications in several industrial processes and in different industries, principally as a source of energy. In nature is very difficult to find free hydrogen, in fact it is often tied to other raw elements, and it requires a chemical process to be extracted and transformed into pure hydrogen. Depending on the sustainability of the refining process from which the hydrogen is extracted, it could be defined with different colors: black, gray, blue, violet and green. Black is the hydrogen whose refining produces the most CO2 and green is the most sustainable one. Today hydrogen represents only a small fraction of the EU’s energy mix, and more than the 95% of it is extracted from fossil fuels, principally natural gas. The Green Hydrogen will be a great solution to be more sustainable and reduce drastically the CO2 emissions both for industrial firms and cars.  

The Global Hydrogen Market closed the 2020 with a market value of USD 120.77 billion and is expected to grow between the 2021and 2028 with a CAGR of 5,7%. 

In Italy, hydrogen is currently almost entirely limited to industrial applications in refining and chemistry (ammonia), and it is generally of the gray form, which is highly carbon polluting and derived primarily from methane. In Italy, the current final usage of hydrogen is 16 TWh, or about 1% of total final energy consumption (1,436 TWh), and equates to around 480,000 t/year, of which about 8,500 t/year is marketed in cylinders and particular pipes. By 2050, hydrogen is expected to account for over a quarter of all energy demand in Italy. The Ministry of Economic Development estimates that between 2020 and 2030, up to 10 billion euros will be invested in Italy to kick-start the low-carbon hydrogen sector and satisfy the hydrogen penetration demand objective (to which must be added investments for the diffusion of renewables). 

The potential of hydrogen, as well as the Italy's particularly favorable geographical and climatic conditions, can be used to fulfill ecological and, as a result, energy transition goals in Italy.