It is called "green gold" precisely for its green and sustainable vocation, and after years of promises and proclamations, at a time when alternatives to conventional fuel are being desperately sought and enormous emphasis is being placed on electric vehicles to cut emissions, hydrogen seems to be receiving the attention it deserves.

Fuel cell technology and green hydrogen

For decades now, fuel cell technology has dominated discussion among experts and politicians, the former promoting and the latter promising that the revolution in terms of sustainability and mobility will come from hydrogen. Hydrogen represents one of the options identified by the European Commission (Dafi) for the decarbonisation of transport, with applications for cars, lorries, trains, ships and freight-handling vehicles, yet its advance has not progressed as quickly as one would hope given the many advantages it would bring.

The slowdown is primarily linked to economic and practical reasons. Fuel cell technology — which uses hydrogen and oxygen cells to produce emission-free energy — is expensive, especially when it comes to green hydrogen, the truly zero-emission variety, which is created by separating hydrogen and oxygen from water through an electrolyser powered by electricity. That electricity, with a view to reducing emissions not only when hydrogen is used but also when it is produced, must be generated from green and renewable sources. The whole process is decidedly costly, and without a plan of investment and incentives from governments, hydrogen technology remains out of reach — especially when it comes to using it in conventional cars. The picture changes, however, when discussing commercial truck fleets and the use of hydrogen in the logistics sector.

Hydrogen and fuel cell technology for logistics: the pioneers

Truck manufacturers, too, must adapt — just as carmakers have — to the push from governments to cut emissions, complying with the terms of the Paris Agreement and enabling a carbon-free Europe by 2050. And in the case of lorries and vehicles (which produce a large share of emissions) that must cover long distances for deliveries, electric power is not as sustainable an alternative as it is for private cars: to guarantee greater range, larger batteries would be needed, which would effectively become a burden. The lorry would end up carrying less cargo to make room for the battery, making the ratio of earnings to costs unsustainable.

So what is the solution? Hydrogen could become, for many truck and lorry manufacturers, the alternative, and in recent months an ever-growing number of hydrogen vehicles have been unveiled. One example is Nikola Tre, the fuel cell electric lorry developed by Iveco, Fpt Industrial and the American company Nikola Corporation, which is expected to reach the road by 2023, shortly after the debut of a fully electric vehicle with a range of 400 km.

The Hyundai group — which, along with Toyota, is the manufacturer focusing most on hydrogen, including in the car sector — has delivered the first fuel cell lorries in Europe, announcing that in 2021 it will begin selling them in the United States and China. It has also launched a trial in Switzerland (through Hyundai hydrogen mobility AG) with Auto AG Truck, delivering the first seven of the fifty 36-tonne Xcient semi-trailers that will begin operating on routes allowing hydrogen refuelling.

Toyota, as mentioned, has also joined the race, and together with Hino (the brand specialising in trucks and buses) has announced that the first fuel cell lorry will arrive in North America in the first half of 2021.

Furthermore: as part of its electrification process, Scania (which has already presented its electric vehicles) has signed a partnership with Asko, Norway's leading fast-moving consumer goods wholesaler, for fuel cell trucks powered by hydrogen gas. This is, Scania explains, a unique pilot project of its kind, which for now envisages the introduction on the road of four trucks ready to carry out daily freight transport operations. It is a trial aimed at understanding how sustainable and adaptable hydrogen technology is to operational needs.

Bosch, the German innovation and services giant, is working with startup Powercell to develop the stack — the core of the fuel cell — and prepare it for market launch, with the aim of beginning production of complete systems in 2022–2023. Hyzon Motors, with the support of French energy giant Total, plans to deliver around 5,000 fuel cell lorries and buses over the next three years.

Funding and infrastructure: the challenges to overcome and investment plans

The projects, in short, are there. There are therefore two key challenges to overcome, and the first is refuelling infrastructure, which — just as with electric vehicles — is a fundamental piece of the puzzle for the large-scale adoption of hydrogen technology. While the push on the electric side is stronger, with new charging points and charging stations being developed by both governments and manufacturers, hydrogen is still lagging behind.

In 2019, 83 hydrogen refuelling stations were opened, 36 of them in Europe, 38 in Asia and nine in the United States, bringing the total to 432 operational stations, 330 of them public. That number quadrupled in four years, according to the twelfth annual report by H2stations.org, but it is still insufficient to support large-scale hydrogen use — even though fewer stations would be needed for lorries compared to the conventional car market.

The second knot to untangle concerns development strategies and funding. Last July, the European Commission presented the EU hydrogen strategy, which places so-called green hydrogen at its centre: the goal is to make Europe a world leader in renewable hydrogen, with 500 billion in investment and the founding of the Clean Hydrogen Alliance.

In Italy, the Ministry of University and Research (Miur) provided the first guidelines for hydrogen research within the EU programme, focusing on solutions for the production, storage, distribution and use of hydrogen with zero CO2 emissions.

The so-called Recovery Plan also envisages considerable investment in the sector, with the Mise having allocated one billion euros of available resources to a plan structured around six points: among the main ones, the development of prototypes to reach electrolysers at industrial scale, the creation of a research platform dedicated to hydrogen production and storage, and the creation of "hydrogen valleys", which are intended to promote and spread the use of hydrogen at a local level through dedicated projects and networks.

The Minister of Economic Development, Stefano Patuanelli, had confirmed the Italian investment plan, citing not only the resources of the Recovery Plan but also the December budget package, clarifying that the billions available for the so-called "important projects of common European interest" on hydrogen would amount to three.

Italy also has significant engineering projects under way, such as the "Waste to Hydrogen" plant by NextChem at Eni's biorefinery in Venice, and in this context transport represents one of the central issues, with studies already under way such as the "Piano nazionale di sviluppo mobilità idrogeno Italia" by H2IT, which outlines the development potential of the refuelling infrastructure across the country and the actions needed to bring it about: the idea is to produce hydrogen from waste, making use of non-recyclable plastic packaging through collaboration with Corepla.

"The Italian government is working on a specific strategy for hydrogen to set out a long-term framework for planning investments and thinking in a European perspective," Gilberto Dialuce, Director General of the Directorate General for Infrastructure and Safety of Energy and Geomining Systems at the Mise, had assured those attending the international conference "Potenzialità della filiera dell'idrogeno nel contesto della transizione energetica", held in September at the Campidoglio, recalling that other EU member states too — Germany and France above all — had moved towards a "green" hydrogen coalition in order to increase investment in the supply chain on the part of the European Commission.