Centre for Low Carbon Hydrogen Studies
At ICAI, School of Engineering and the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies (ICADE), the aim is to take advantage of multidisciplinary synergies and offer scientific research that contributes to the development of green hydrogen as a key factor in the decarbonisation of the Spanish economy.
At ICAI, School of Engineering and the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies (ICADE), the aim is to take advantage of multidisciplinary synergies and offer scientific research that contributes to the development of green hydrogen as a key factor in the decarbonisation of the Spanish economy.
Mission and Objectives
The development of a hydrogen economy faces numerous challenges and uncertainties in relation to hydrogen production, transportation, storage, and usage. Addressing and overcoming these challenges will also require policy and regulatory measures as well as the use of financial instruments and the development of new business models.
The Centre's objective is to serve as a meeting point for all the agents involved in the hydrogen value chain and to contribute to the development of the renewable hydrogen sector in Spain by conducting studies, compiling and analysing data, and organising events.
In this way, the Centre will contribute to the development and fulfilment of the European and Spanish green hydrogen strategy for the country to achieve climate neutrality and a 100% renewable electricity system by 2050 at the latest.
The Centre's specific objectives, listed below, cover the entire value chain of this energy vector, encompassing technical-economic, regulatory, and financial aspects:
- To investigate the role of hydrogen in a decarbonised energy system, including the transition process, as well as the planning and regulation of associated energy infrastructures (networks, storage, production).
- Generate proposals for business models associated with the hydrogen economy and promote financial innovation initiatives/financial instruments for the financing of these business models.
- Contribute to the creation of a hydrogen market as the main aggregator of information on supply and demand conditions, and to the valuation of the asset-commodity.
- Monitor the evolution of the indicators that determine the economic viability of renewable hydrogen in its production, storage, transport and use.
- Identify and analyse the regulatory implications and possible barriers to the development of renewable hydrogen, and contribute to evaluating and generating proposals and possible technical alternatives for adaptation or modification of regulations, incentives and other possible measures.
- Promote informed debate among all the agents involved to facilitate the energy transition in Spain.
Projects Map
The hydrogen project observatory is based on open source data, and it aims to provide a comprehensive overview of existing and planned hydrogen production projects.
Activities
From our point of view, one of the fundamental pillars of the Centre is to carry out rigorous scientific research into the hydrogen sector, to generate interest, train, and prepare our students as future professionals in the sector as well as disseminate the new knowledge generated. For this reason, the activities of the Centre will include:
- Directing doctoral theses that generate new knowledge on the hydrogen sector.
- Encouraging the carrying out of end-of-degree/master's degree projects on subjects related to the chair, which may be supervised by professors from the University or by professionals from the companies.
- Publication of scientific contributions in high impact journals.
In addition, one of the Centre's objective is to serve as a meeting and reflection point for different companies and organisations, and to promote informed debate on the hydrogen economy. Therefore, the above research and training activity will be complemented by the following activities:
- Organisation of events, either open to the public (conferences, seminars, round tables) or behind closed doors with a reduced group of experts (discussion forums, dialogue groups).
- Promoting the appearance in the general media of news items related to hydrogen potential.
- Produce an annual report, focusing on a specific aspect or as an observatory of indicators on a regular basis.
We work towards
climate neutrality
The team
Publications
Latest news
The first Annual Report on Hydrogen is presented at Comillas, which shows the state of this energy vector in Spain and the factors for its development
Two experts explained at Comillas the generation of gas and hydrogen prices
This financial institution will contribute to the creation of proposals for the development of business and regulatory models
