Snam, Italian Rail Eye Hydrogen-Powered Trains

Italian gas grid operator Snam has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with FS Italiane rail network on evaluating the technical and economic feasibility of developing hydrogen-powered rail transport in Italy. 

The pair will consider new business models for the scheme and may advance joint projects on converting railway lines to hydrogen. They will set up a working group to assess these projects, and experiment with technological solutions for the production, transport, compression, storage, supply and utilisation of hydrogen.

"The agreement signed with Snam confirms the importance, for FS Italiane, of encouraging sustainable mobility, in line with the European Green New Deal," FS Italiane CEO Gianfranco Battisti said in a statement. "Hydrogen rail transports are a fundamental innovation capable of increasing environmental sustainability for both freight and passengers’ transports on the remaining railway sections not yet electrified."

"With this agreement, we are taking an important step in promoting a hydrogen value chain in Italy starting from sectors that are crucial for decarbonisation such as the transport of people and goods," Snam CEO Marco Alvero added. "Thanks to the collaboration between FS Italiane and Snam, we aim to create infrastructure to rapidly convert trains currently powered by diesel in Italy to hydrogen, thus gaining a technological leadership to be capitalised also at an international level."