Isotta Fraschini Motori (IFM), heir of a Made in Italy icon and today a subsidiary of Fincantieri, was at the centre of an institutional day for presenting new lines of action devoted to innovation and environmental sustainability involving the plant. The company designs, builds and markets energy and thruster generators.

The pivotal event was the inauguration of the new Innovation and Development Centre (CIS). Attending were President of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano, welcomed by the CEO of Fincantieri, Pierroberto Folgiero, together with IFM’s top management, Sergio Razeto, Chairman, and Marco Acca, CEO.

Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO of Fincantieri, said: “This is an essential step for our Isotta Fraschini, involved in its own right in the technological innovation programme laid out by the new business plan, that relaunches the synergy between the company and the Group’s naval and merchant ships divisions. The new CIS is an important piece of a strategy heavily promoted by Fincantieri that will lead to the definition of increasingly efficient and sustainable products, those of the future”. CIS, to which both in-house resources and 32 young new hires have been assigned, will primarily be tasked with developing “IFuture”, a complex engineering and industrialisation plan that comprises:

-a constant improvement of reliability of the engines currently in production;

- the making of an “industrial version” of the engines addressed to the generating set market for industrial application on dry land;

-the study of new power management systems that manage numerous energy production sources, including the renewable ones: fuel cells, batteries, internal combustion engines, turbines, photovoltaic and others, integrating them together to optimise energy supply in complex equipment;

-The launch of a new engine design – aimed at meeting the market’s demands of the upcoming years in terms of power and reducing emissions – focussing on technologies that contribute to the energy transition and whose final objective is to use hydrogen.

It is precisely from the strong focus on hydrogen that “IFuture Hydrogen” came into being, also thanks to the funds provided by the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy and the European Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) Hy2Tech fund. This programme will lead to the making of two distinct marine products powered with this fuel: a family of internal combustion engines and a modular fuel cell platform. Both will be dedicated to a power range falling between 500 and 4,000 kW and they will reduce CO2 emissions up to values close to zero.