De Nora, electrolyser for 11 million European project in Greece

Industrie De Nora is a partner in the Crete-Aegean Hydrogen Valley (Crave-H2) initiative: an EUR 11.2 million European project, of which the European Commission is contributing almost EUR 8 million, for the creation of a dedicated hub for green hydrogen production on the island of Crete, in the port of Atherinolakkos. The hydrogen will be partly stored and used in the grid when needed, converted into electricity via fuel cells, and partly used as fuel for local public mobility. De Nora will supply the 'compact' 4 MW capacity Dragonfly electrolyser to produce over 500 tonnes of hydrogen per year. A EUR 4.7 million commitment (of which EUR 3.3 million will be covered by a European contribution), the largest among the initiative's partners, which include the Politecnico di Torino. The project, promoted by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership of which the European Commission is a member, will last until May 2028.

The De Nora group is also involved in the European HyTecHeat project, together with other Italian companies such as Rina, Snam, Tenova, Nunki Steel, and Dalmine, for the realisation of a prototype polycarbonate combustion system that intends to validate hybrid heating technologies based on natural gas with a progressive increase in hydrogen, in order to decarbonise a traditionally hard-to-abate sector such as steel.

"We decided to enter the market with the Dragonfly small electrolyser, from 1 up to a maximum of 7-8 MW capacity, for decentralised markets where green hydrogen is produced on site in small quantities: a typical aspect of the Italian industrial structure. The idea is to serve markets outside of those covered by the supply of electrodes by Thyssenkrupp Nucera (the joint venture between Thyssenkrupp and De Nora, ndr), for which we speak of 200-300 MW capacity. Dragonfly is in fact the result of a study carried out with Snam, also in view of the Ipcei tender, which we then won and thanks to which we are building a plant in Cernusco sul Naviglio, near Milan, which will be operational from 2026 and in which we will produce Dragonfly for the Italian market and, secondly, electrodes to implement, due to increased demand, the needs for hydrogen-related production capacity. Globally, as per the business plan, we expect to expand it by 2026 to 4.5 GW from the current 2.5 GW. The demand for hydrogen in Italy is stimulated by Pnrr: ceramics, small steel mills, mobility, these are all sectors from which requests come,' says Lorenzo Antozzi, director Energy Transition & Hydrogen at De Nora.

Paolo Dellachà, CEO of De Nora, an Italian multinational company listed on Euronext Milan and specialised in electrochemistry, confirms: "The latest-generation containerised electrolyser recently launched on the market represents a cutting-edge asset in the hydrogen value chain, contributing to the decarbonisation process of several industrial sectors and playing a key role in mobility. De Nora is at the heart of strategic projects on a national, European and global level, and in this context Dragonfly confirms itself as a leading product for accelerating the energy transition in specific markets".