The project, carried out in partnership with the MAIRE group, was developed as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).

Rome, June 26, 2023 – Today, at the service station on Via Ardeatina, Q8 presented the project for the realization of the first circular hydrogen station in Rome.

The event was attended by prominent institutional stakeholders as well as some of the most prestigious private companies in the automotive supply chain.

This project is part of Q8's strategy to offer customers a wide range of products, including low environmental impact options (Low Carbon Fuels), such as its newly launched product Q8 HVO+, an exclusive biofuel formulation derived from renewable raw materials.

The Q8 station on Via Ardeatina, which already provides traditional fuels, LPG, methane, as well as electric car charging services, will be enhanced with the addition of hydrogen, becoming a comprehensive hub for sustainable mobility. The project has been developed within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) for “Renewable energy, hydrogen, network, and sustainable mobility,” as well as the "hydrogen experimentation for road haulage" funded by the European Union’s NextGenerationEU Fund.

This project has been carried out in partnership with the MAIRE group, which will act as the exclusive technology integrator for circular hydrogen, produced at the first waste-to-hydrogen plant in Italy that MAIRE is developing in Rome as part of the EU's “IPCEI Hy2Use” project, subject to authorization procedures. The partnership is further expanding with the signing of a letter of intent between the two companies to develop a national supply chain for the production, transportation, storage, and use of renewable products for increasingly sustainable mobility.

For the first year, sales are estimated at around 14,500 kg in total, with growth rates of 40% expected for the first five years, consistent with estimates of future vehicle registrations and the refueling capacity for which the station is designed.

Hydrogen will be available for public sale at the beginning of 2026, ahead of the deadlines set by the PNRR, subject to the time required for regulatory procedures. It will be dispensed at two different pressures: one for refueling cars and the other for buses and general public transport.

For passenger cars, just 1 kg of hydrogen is sufficient to travel approximately 100 km, whereas collective transport vehicles require 8 kg of hydrogen to travel the same distance, resulting in over a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to traditional diesel, and about a 10% reduction compared to the new Q8 HVO+ product.

“As an energy company, Q8 is actively contributing to the energy transition process,” said Fadel Al Faraj, CEO of Q8. “We are open to all solutions that technological innovation can offer, with the goal of serving mobility with increasingly sustainable energy sources as they become available, thereby creating the refueling network of the future, multienergy and multiservice. For this reason,” Al Faraj concluded, “we firmly believe in the power of partnerships between stakeholders, both public and private, because only through alliances between various actors can we effectively and sustainably tackle global challenges and create a better future for all of us".