Redevelopment of Industrial Brownfields Through Green Hydrogen: Evolution and Criticalities

Human activity continues to have innumerable impacts on the environment and hence on the territory, creating potential environmental and social damage in increasingly vast areas that now affect the entire planet and which, in the long term, may lead to the impoverishment of natural resources and the eco-systemic functions connected with them, with consequent significant economic damage. From this perspective, the redevelopment of industrial brownfields represents an opportunity: i) to relaunch the territorial system from the economic point of view, ii) to accelerate the transformation of the business community, iii) to raise the level of architectural and landscape quality of urban spaces, iv) to favour the settlement of highly innovative activities in terms of the specificity of production, and v) to reduce the socio-environmental impacts on the surrounding community both now and in the future. In Italy, the current PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) is also urging the country’s regions and autonomous provinces to identify and therefore redevelop their industrial brownfield lands to convert them into centres for the production and distribution of hydrogen from renewable energy sources (green hydrogen). Hydrogen is increasingly being considered an energy vector that can promote environmental protection, social welfare, and the consequent improvement of the economic performance of production organizations. At the same time, in 2019, the European Commission, with the European Green Deal, indicated green hydrogen to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Therefore, this paper aims to recall the main benefits of green hydrogen and its critical points within the sustainable development of a territory.