IL TIRRENO – Hydrogen Firm Enapter Expands Its Headquarters in Crespina

Hydrogen agreement with Tuscany Region and the Municipality: yes to more laboratories and instruments

March 4, 2021

MARCH 04, 2021 CRESPINA.

Enapter, the company that produces high-efficiency modular hydrogen generators at its largest site in Crespina Lorenzana, is consolidating its presence in Tuscany. It has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Region of Tuscany and the Municipality of Crespina in which it employs about 100 people, with signatures from the President of the Region of Tuscany, Eugenio Giani, Enapter’s General Manager Jan-Justus Schmidt and the mayor, Thomas D’Addona.

Enapter is committed to setting up several new labs for engineering and chemical research , including a clean room, as well as to purchasing highly sophisticated instrumentation with Industry 4.0 parameters for the new labs, including an ICP-OES spectrometer, a gas chromatograph, a thermal chamber and a climate chamber. The company intends to help increase employment by hiring engineers, chemists, and chemical and industrial experts. It plans to modernise the external areas connecting the various buildings and to use a part of them as a company parking lot, adopting at the same time strategies of environmental sustainability for the planned interventions, including equipping the building with a photovoltaic system, to be used both for the company’s ordinary energy needs and for activities dedicated specifically to research and development.

Enapter also intends to acquire the building in front of the current research and development centre to further scale up production, to acquire hardware and software tools of Industry 4.0 to expand the assembly area, to carry out a process innovation through to supplying the line with the Kanban system and Andon systems for the detection of non-compliance with the standard, and to equip the building with a photovoltaic system for ordinary energy use and for production activities.

Enapter will continue to invest in research and technological innovation to be more deeply rooted in the Tuscan territory in general and in the area of the Municipality of Crespina Lorenzana in particular. It also seeks to become a virtuous example of a successful initiative in the field of highly innovative clean technologies, acting as a magnet for new generations of researchers eager to measure themselves against today’s climate problems and environmental challenges. Among other things, the Region has started a round table with the Tuscan research system and industry on the topic of hydrogen, in which Enapter also participates, both in view of the Recovery Fund and the European structural funds for 2021-2027. It will convene again soon with the aim of starting to converge on the development axes of hydrogen-related applications in Tuscany and formulating projects to be taken to national and European levels in the light of local technical and scientific capabilities and the presence of a production chain in which Enapter itself can capitalise on its innovations.

“The Memorandum of Understanding that we signed is the crowning achievement of a joint work carried out in synergy between one of the best innovative companies in our territory and the Region,” explains the president of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani. “For our part, we are committed to providing Enapter with the best conditions for its further development and we are delighted that it has found favourable conditions for its growth in Tuscany. We will follow and accompany this process of consolidation and expansion, ensuring the involvement and collaboration of other local and national public bodies, also through the creation of a special technical round table”.

In particular, the Region will promote industrial collaboration with the network of companies active in the area, facilitating relations with companies of interest to Enapter in Tuscany, including multinationals in the green energy sector, by activating direct contacts and organising matchmaking events. It will also promote research and development activities through collaboration between Enapter and the academic world with the aim of accelerating the use of innovative technologies, processes and products. “We are thrilled to see our headquarters in Italy expand,” says Jan-Justus Schmidt. “It is the heart of Enapter. The proximity to excellent university departments of electrochemistry provides the right resources to promote our research and development. With the support of the Tuscany Region and the Municipality of Crespina Lorenzana, we are confident that we can continue to develop our AEM electrolysers to combat climate change.”

For its part, the municipality is committed to accompanying the development of Enapter’s investment project by actively participating in the working group coordinated by the Tuscany Region. Enapter’s mission is to replace fossil fuels by making green hydrogen economically competitive. AEM electrolysers are manufactured in series production at the Crespina site.

Read the article here (Italian).