Airbus, Snam and SAVE have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the use of hydrogen as a sustainable energy carrier in the airport and air transport sectors.
All three companies will be sharing a common strategy aimed at helping to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from airport activities, starting from Marco Polo airport in Venice, managed by SAVE.
The partnership between these companies will cover a number of areas, starting with future needs and technological options, leading to the identification of technical and implementation solutions that will be tested through pilot projects and then extended to a large scale.
“This collaboration with Airbus and SAVE,” said Marco Alverà, CEO of Snam “is aimed at supporting one of Italy’s most important airports, in an iconic city like Venice, in moving towards the goal of zero emissions.
“This initiative is part of our commitment to contributing to the decarbonisation of airports and is also coherent with the projects that we would like to develop in the area as part of the ‘Venice World Sustainability Capital’ Foundation, of which Snam is one of the founding members.
“Hydrogen is a key solution for promoting environmental sustainability and the competitiveness of airports, ports, heavy and maritime transport and all the ‘hard-to-abate’ sectors.
“Snam is committed to investing in technology, network development and integrated projects to foster the development of a national hydrogen value chain, accelerating the energy transition”.
“This agreement with Snam and Airbus is a key step along the path taken by our Group with a view to the ecological transition and decarbonisation of its airports” said Monica Scarpa, CEO of SAVE Group
“The specific nature and value of this project to study and apply hydrogen in the aviation sector, consist, in particular, in sharing expertise covering the entire chain, from production, storage, supply and use for commercial aeronautics of this fuel, which can make a major contribution to the energy challenge facing our planet.
“For Venice airport, it means making an active contribution to the effort to reduce harmful emissions, in line with our city’s goal of becoming an international sustainability capital”.
The engineering and design studies under the agreement will include the technological infrastructure needed to refuel both aircraft and airport vehicles with hydrogen, with the possibility of evaluating effective solutions for energy needs related to airport accessibility, making the entire airport system zero-emission.
An intermodal synergy with road and rail transport could also be activated.
Together, Snam, SAVE and Airbus will be able to develop innovative technologies and end-to-end solutions based on hydrogen and aimed at both Venice airport and other potential users, also by participating in grant programs and public tenders at both national and European level.
