If you want to – and you understand Italian – you can also watch the interview on YouTube.
Barbara Grazzini (InEuropa srl):Good morning everyone again, today we interview a new guest, Giordano Gozzi, CEO of the Idro Meccanica company of Modena. Today we are going to talk about a part of the supply chain that deals with hydrogen, because Idro Meccanica specifically deals with hydrogen fueling stations. I leave Mr Gozzi the word. He is about to tell us the role of the company in the hydrogen supply chain.
Giordano Gozzi (Idro Meccanica srl): Welcome everybody. Idro Meccanica deals with hydrogen combustion. Actually, in order to reduce the space needed to contain hydrogen you must increase the pressure, like inflating the tires of a bicycle. That’s exactly what we do. We extract hydrogen that is generated from special equipment in other steps of the supply chain, we increase its pressure so that there’s more room for hydrogen. Then hydrogen will fuel vehicles or will be used for stationary fuel cell applications, both for mobility and heating systems. We started our activity many years ago, the company is more than 50 years old, we are second generation holders, my brother andI carry on the business that started by using methane as fossil fuel. Natural gas is what we use at home, it can be used for mobility, for vehicles. Today we tend to use totally sustainable fuels, which are not fossil fuels. Nowadays we produce biomethanefrom food waste or from organic fraction of municipal solid waste, which is what we throw away in the trash bag of organic food that we use at home. In the case of hydrogen, which is an energy vector, we produce it, once it’s ready, we set it aside, that’s my job, and we use it without needing to exploit the energy required to produce it.
Barbara Grazzini (InEuropa srl): Your role is very important, you are also the main actors of the hydrogen supply chain in Modena, the so-called Hydrogen Valley. It is important to understand how the hydrogen storage works and how it is used as we saw not only in university laboratories but also on the field, how companies operate and put it at disposal of vehicles, is that right?
Giordano Gozzi (Idro Meccanica srl): Yes, we are lucky to live in a very fertile territory for small companies and research. Thanks to the interest of Emilia-Romagna region, of Clust-ER Greentech and some of the members of these clusters dealing with research and innovation as laboratories and companies, with the involvement of other cities and the city of Modena. Emilia-Romagna region is a member of the European Hydrogen Valleys Partnership, which is a group of European regions that want to encourage the use of hydrogen in mobility, which is what I do, and more generally in daily life. Our future must take into account that hydrogen can be used to head towards green and renewable energy. If there’s no renewable energy, like the sun or the wind, for electric energy production on a windless summer night, hydrogen is fundamental. That’s why Emilia-Romagna region, the city of Modena, some other cities and the High Technology Network where Modena and Reggio Emilia are both members, joined the Hydrogen Valleys club. Not only do we talk about hydrogen applications, but also about information and this is why we are here today. We are talkingabout the creation of new workers in the sectors of renewable energy, environmental sustainability and circular economy, all these issues are very popular today, but we need a new generation of trained people. If you are watching this interview you could be the future technicians female and male, and you’ll have to use renewable energies in preference to fossil fuels to help our planet.
Barbara Grazzini (InEuropa srl): I wanted to say that FCHgo works on this to give information and create training programs for schools of all levels to allow teachers and students to discover and study this subject, which school programs usually don’t cover. We still have outdated programs if you think about sustainable and cutting-edge technologies and alternative solutionsto fossil fuels. It’s good to have people who are living proofs that it’s possible to grow professionally in comparison to the past and to traditional energy sources, which are still unsustainable sources, to step up your game for carbon-neutral solutions, such as the hydrogen vector we’re talking about. I’ll ask you something for schools in Modena, what would you like to say to these schools? We’re talking about Modena since Idro Meccanica is located here, but schools all over Italy should join our project. You have three daughters, they must join FCHgo.
Giordano Gozzi (Idro Meccanica srl): I believe everyone should join this project. My peers and I have paved the way for alternative energy sources, but we won’t complete this race. It’s a race whose results depend on future generations. Nowadays, students and people interested in this field and believing in its career opportunities have to take the next step and pick up the baton. I was lucky because in 1996, in the last century, when I started to work in my father’s company and I was a newcomer, I was told to work on hydrogen, since it wasn’t a big deal at that time and in thirty years’ time we might understand its applications. It’s been twenty-four years since then and we’re seeing now its potential. We’re here today because we had to wait for a long time before hydrogen was launched as a fuel.I’ll continue to run this race, but the ones who’ll develop this technology are you, students who are listening to this interview. We’ll leave you this task. Thereare things to improve and you have the skills to make things right.
Barbara Grazzini (InEuropa srl): Absolutely. It’s great to hear this message from a businessman like you who runs a company which has been innovating since 1996 and is a pioneer in this field.
Giordano Gozzi (Idro Meccanica srl): I’m an old pioneer because I’m one of the oldest people who work in this field in Italy.
Barbara Grazzini (InEuropa srl): One of the oldest in the area, you’re right. Congratulations. Thank you for your time. Youshared an important message with schools. Companies will allow schools and future generations to study and discover what you do locally because sometimes the books we study or the experiments we do are an end to itself. But here we see the real application and use of these notions in Italy and in the world since we’re working together with other organizations all over Europe. They work in the same way as we do to share a message and share their knowledge with schools. Thank you again.
Giordano Gozzi (Idro Meccanica srl): Thank you.
Barbara Grazzini (InEuropa srl): We might talk again to see what you actually do and to come to visit you. We also recommend that schools are interested in what you do, contact you and see what you do.
Giordano Gozzi (Idro Meccanica srl): If you want to see some compressors or how to make refueling stations for hydrogen vehicles, you can visit us at any time.
Barbara Grazzini (InEuropa srl): Thank you, have a nice day. Talk again soon.
Giordano Gozzi (Idro Meccanica srl): Thank you, bye!
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