“I’m a mechanical engineer with an energy specialization and about 15 years of experience in innovation in the energy sector. Currently, I work at Enel Green Power, a company of Enel group operating throughout the world with renewable energy plants, partner of the ELECTROLIFE project, contributing to several Work Packages and tasks, leader in Work Package 5 “Testing and Diagnostic Tools” and Exploitation Manager.”
What was your original motivation to pursue a career in innovation?
“Since my university days, I have been keenly interested in energy topics, not only for work opportunities but also for technical and ethical reasons: through technological innovation, renewable energy and energy efficiency can play a key role in the pathway for decarbonization path.”
What is your (main) research area/interest today?
“My current role as a Hydrogen Innovation Manager involves seeking and validating novel hydrogen technologies and developments of green hydrogen projects.”
What are the main objectives of your team in ELECTROLIFE?
“Our team contributes to several topics of the ELECTROLIFE project: degradation phenomena comprehension, development of electrolyzer test benches and diagnostic tools, optimization of operative strategies, and leading the exploitation plan development. The final aim is to address one of the challenges to the sustainability of green hydrogen production, that is electrolyzer degradation and enhancement of its useful life, in order to foster the adoption of these improved solutions in the energy sector.”
What expertise and facilities does your team have to meet those objectives?
“Our team brings into the ELECTROLIFE project its expertise in: the management and operation of complex and innovative projects, due to its wide experience in innovation; approach and methodology for testing and scale-up of novel solutions for early adoption, testing infrastructures.
Leveraging on this expertise and assets, in the ELECTROLIFE project we are mainly contributing to the development of stack test benches, tools and methods that will help comprehension of electrolyzer degradation and improvement of performance and durability.”
Which aspects of your research at ELECTROLIFE do you find the most innovative and what unique opportunities offer ELECTROLIFE to you and your organization?
“ELECTROLIFE gives a unique opportunity to organizations and companies belonging to different sectors (Research and Technology Organizations, universities, technology developers, utilities), each one with its own know-how and background, to work jointly with the same targets. In a topic such as electrolyzer degradation, sharing know-how and experiences between the partners represents an added value for the effectiveness of the project.
From a personal perspective, I find it’s a unique opportunity especially for acquiring know-how in electrolyzers testing solutions and methodologies.”
How do you see the future use and impact of the ELECTROLIFE results?
“ELECTROLIFE is aimed, on the one hand, at being a reference and a starting point for further research regarding electrolyzer degradation; on the other hand the development of technologies and solutions to mitigate degradation is already expected by the partners during the project.
I am confident that the generated results will be valuable and useful in several fields of electrolysis: comprehension of degradation phenomena, improvement of technologies and durability, standardization of testing procedures, development of tools for testing, monitoring and diagnostic, improvement of operation performances, enhancement of useful life, optimization of O&M strategies, LCOH reduction. We expect that the partners and in general the hydrogen sector may benefit from the exploitation of these results, contributing to green hydrogen economical sustainability and adoption.”
