Hydrogen represents an important energy vector during the energetic transition taking place in these years. As part of the MEES Hydrogen Project, CNR-IPCF, in its three units, will be involved in different activities with the aim to develop innovative materials, processes and technologies for the production of hydrogen, the improvement of the reliability, efficiency, flexibility and resilience of the national energy system.

In particular, main project goals are:

• prepare highly efficient photocatalyst and photoelectrocatalyst materials and optimize synthesis methods with low environmental, energy and economic impact and potentially scalable at an industrial level for the fabrication of devices (BARI).
• development of sustainable biological processes and bioreactors for the production of hydrogen with photosynthetic bacteria / microorganisms from by-products and biomass of the agro-food industry(BARI).
• hydrogen production through photocatalysis and photoelectrocatalysis processes and liquid hydrogen carriers obtained from the photochemical and photoelectrochemical conversion of CO₂ and H₂O (MESSINA).
• development of innovative components such as electrodes with low or no content of precious metals and advanced membranes for polymeric fuel cells with proton and anionic electrolyte (PISA).
• direct conversion of biomass into hydrogen: development of materials for pyrolysis and gasification of biogenic materials and experimentation in catalytic microreactors for the production of green hydrogen (PISA).
• study of methodologies based on artificial intelligence and energy management algorithms to improve the interface with the hydrogen infrastructure network (MESSINA).