24/03/2022
Confindustria, the companies from the territory and Regione Piemonte for sustainable cities and communities.
Giacomini was invited to the round table organized by Confindustria Novara, Vercelli and Valsesia on 23 March in Novara, where Regione Piemonte explained the strategic plans to rapidly become a true Hydrogen Valley as cutting-edge pole for hydrogen-based research and technologies.
Julien Nyst, General Manager of Giacomini Benelux and Hydrogen Development Manager for the Group, has presented the goals achieved and the future plans of Giacomini’s research, with the new hydrogen catalytic combustion boilers for residential use and the integrated solutions with electrolyzer, hydrogen storage, fuel cells.
“We have already taken many steps in the sector of residential-use hydrogen,” said Nyst. As a multinational group we can count on the experience of other countries already part of the energy transition and collaborate with the Italian or Regional Authorities to start pilot projects. Of course, having the Parent Company on the Piedmontese territory may help Regione Piemonte achieve its strategic goals for this topic, quite “hot” not only for environment sustainability but also for politics and economy.”
For some time now Giacomini has identified hydrogen as an effective solution and contribution to decarbonize the Planet; 20 years ago, it had already started designing a catalytic-reaction hydrogen boiler. Regione Piemonte showed its interest in this solution at once and decided to give it visibility during the 2006 Olympic Games inside the Casa Italia exposition area.
Many prototypes more and more evolved have been installed during the development of this technology along the years. Among these, worth mentioning is the installation of 8 hydrogen-fueled boilers to heat two school buildings in the Orcadi Islands, as part of the BIG HIT project. This is a quite representative experience for the strategic use of hydrogen, which aims at implementing a model fully replicable and perfectly integrated for local production, storage, transportation and end use for heating, electric energy production and mobility.
Today Giacomini is working to completely rethink its boiler and achieve greater efficiency while making it affordable for a mass market. In collaboration with the Politecnico of Milan and its catalyzer specialists, Giacomini is developing a new 25 kW boiler with instantaneous production of hot water. No need to point out that the boiler will be able to work on a hydrogen-based network with characteristics similar to the current natural gas network.
“The Netherlands - said Nyst - have already decided to eliminate the use of natural gas for domestic heating in 2050. This will mean replacing the systems of at least 500 thousand houses out of 7 million that are still connected to the natural gas grid with hydrogen-fueled boilers within 2030!
