DAIMON joins the national Program Agreement on hydrogen research and development, funded with €110 million under the PNRR, with activities on multiscale and data-driven modelling of advanced materials and on advanced AI for the management of complex energy grids through digital twins.
The DAIMON team of CNR-ISMN is starting its activities within the Program Agreement “Research and Development on Hydrogen” (AdP POR H2) between the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) and ENEA, with the involvement of CNR and RSE. The Agreement implements the Operational Research Plan (POR) on hydrogen, the main Italian research programme dedicated to the development of the national hydrogen supply chain, and is part of Mission 2, Component 2, Investment 3.5 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. The activities started in July 2022 and will end in 2026.
€110 million for the Italian hydrogen supply chain
The Agreement has a total funding of €110 million: ENEA acts as implementing body with €75 million, while CNR and RSE take part as co-implementing bodies with €20 million and €15 million, respectively. The research is organised around four thematic areas:
- production of green and clean hydrogen;
- innovative technologies for hydrogen storage and transport, and its conversion into derivatives and e-fuels;
- fuel cells for stationary and mobility applications;
- intelligent integrated management systems to improve the resilience and reliability of hydrogen-based infrastructures.
Eleven CNR institutes take part in the programme, including the Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials (ISMN) in Bologna.
Multiscale and data-driven modelling of advanced materials (Line of Activity 2.3.6)
Hydrogen technologies depend crucially on the performance of advanced materials. Within Line of Activity 2.3.6, DAIMON contributes with multiscale modelling, connecting electronic and atomistic simulations with coarse-grained and continuum-based methods, and with data-driven approaches based on machine learning. The combination of physics-based and data-driven models supports the in-silico design of materials, the prediction of their properties and the exploration of large design spaces, reducing the need for costly trial-and-error experiments.
Advanced AI for complex grids and digital twins (Line of Activity 4.1.3)
Within Line of Activity 4.1.3, which belongs to the thematic area on intelligent infrastructures, DAIMON works on digital twins of hydrogen-based energy infrastructures and on advanced artificial intelligence methods for the management of complex grids. Digital twins reproduce in a virtual environment the behaviour of the physical components and of the network as a whole, and provide the basis for AI-based algorithms that support control, planning and decision-making, with the aim of improving the resilience and reliability of hydrogen infrastructures integrated with energy networks.
These activities reflect the approach of the DAIMON team, which brings together modelling, simulation, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence to address challenges that range from materials properties to complex systems, for the benefit of sustainable energy technologies.
More information on the programme is available on the CNR-DSCTM website. Stay tuned for updates!
Funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 2 “Green Revolution and Ecological Transition”, Component 2, Investment 3.5 “Research and development on hydrogen”, through the Program Agreement MASE–ENEA/CNR (AdP POR H2, project “H2 – AdC ENEA/CNR POR IDROGENO”, CUP B93C22000630006). The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them.