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Walter Tosto and Quality Engineering together for hydrogen: the two companies from Abruzzo have obtained a public grant of 6 million for a hydrogen production project that will cost 24 million euros. The process they are working on is a thermochemical hydrolysis of water, in productive symbiosis with the desulphurization of fossil fuels. The goal is to develop the technology through a pilot plant within the Science and Technology Park of Abruzzo in Chieti, which will allow the validation of the process even in a configuration that involves energization from high temperature heat sources, typical of concentrators solar and nuclear fission plants.
Tank design
The formulation of new catalysts, the innovative design of the reactors, the selection of materials compatible with critical operating conditions in the presence of corrosive fluids, and worked with particular weldings, are at the center of this research. For the pre-industrial size pilot plant, the planned expenditure for Walter Tosto will exceed 14 million euros. The Chieti-based company, which deals with the supply of industrial components for oil & gas plants, is already present in working groups and industrial alliances in the hydrogen sector. In March it announced the start of production of very high pressure tanks (up to 700 bar) for the storage of hydrogen, with special welding and metals. The investment, between the machinery and the structure that will be built in the industrial complex of Chieti Scalo, and which could already be ready in December, will be around twenty million and will also include furnaces capable of burning hydrogen, mixed with gas.
Development of the Abruzzo territory
Quality Engineering, which has its operational headquarters in San Giovanni Teatino (Chieti), provides engineering services for the management and construction of oil & gas plants. And it has already shown interest in the hydrogen sector. According to Silvano Cimini, scientific director of the project in the Science and Technology Park of Abruzzo, «the specificities of the two production realities will allow us to guarantee all the necessary skills for the success of this research action». Luca Tosto, managing director of Walter Tosto, and Alberto Santalucia, CEO of Quality Engineering, commented: «The organizations of the respective companies are collaborating in an effective joint strategy for the technological development of the Abruzzo area, converging with the international energy transaction policies ».