Energy has a very important place in achieving the sustainable development goal. In particular, the use of fossil-based fuels to meet the energy needs of societies leads to important economic, environmental and social problems. From this point of view, hydrogen energy is an important alternative to solving these problems.

IT IS EXPECTED THAT HYDROGEN, an energy carrier, will have an important place in the energy scenarios of the future. From the industrial revolution to the present day, innovative energy technologies are of great importance in terms of technological and economic progress. Easily accessible electricity and thermal energy from fossil sources facilitate the development of the production, transport and communication infrastructure on which societies have become dependent. In the name of developing renewable technologies in our country, we are also experiencing significant developments in the field of wind and solar energy. For a sustainable future, it is necessary to create power generation solutions that do not lead to carbon emissions, are environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient and have high energy conversion efficiency. In this context, the use of environmentally friendly fuels such as hydrogen stands out in ensuring the continuity of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

Scientific researches and product designs on the production of hydrogen with renewable resources, its safe storage and conversion into electrical energy in high efficiency fuel cells have gained momentum all over the world, especially in recent years. The use of hydrogen powered power generation technologies has started to become widespread in various fields with individual and common power needs, especially in transportation, portable and fixed power systems, and R&D activities in this area continue intensively.

Sharing his views on the subject, METU Mechanical Engineering Department Faculty Member Prof. Dr. Iskender Gökalp says: “Hydrogen is seen as a means of decarbonising the economy, that is, saving it from carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and global warming, reaching an economic system that does not emitting CO2 in 2050, and revitalizing the economic system that is currently in danger of a halt. Billions of dollars and euros have begun to be put on the table in order for the clean production of hydrogen (that is, not by releasing CO2 through natural gas reforming as it is today) to reach commercial size and to reduce the unit production cost to the level that the economy can afford by 2030.”

WHERE SHOULD TURKEY EXACTLY BE IN THIS PROCESS?

Does Turkey have the potential to become a majör player in the global hydrogen market? Gokalp answers these questions by associating hydrogen with security, consumption areas, that is, market opportunities, technology and institutional issues, and continues: “In order for hydrogen to be included in the economy, it has to reach important consumer markets and it should be now, not 30 years later. Industry sectors dependant to hydrogen (refineries, chemical industry, glass industry) must be the first customers of clean hydrogen (then sectors that have to free their production processes such as cement and iron and steel from CO2 emissions). If we expand the market of clean hydrogen as soon as possible, hydrogen production and use technologies are continuously improved through learning by doing and the unit production cost of hydrogen is reduced.”

Barış Sanli, a researcher at the Bilkent Center for Energy Policy speaks out about whether Turkey can be a hydrogen hub in the future or not, her says that in practice all countries can be a hub and adds: “there are dozens of countries in the world with terminal status. Lets take oil as an example. When we talk about oil today, we think of either Brent or WTI. Can Turkey be a hydrogen hub? Of course it can be. But the question of “what kind of a hub it should be” is very important. This requires liquidity, physical, financial products, infrastructures, and largescale production or consumption, and the creation of a hydrogen market in reality is essential.”

Sanli points out that almost most of the hydrogen consumption and production in Turkey is done in refineries and chemical plants and shares the following information: “it may be an important policy step to say that the hydrogen that these plants will use is green hydrogen, and that it will be 100 percent green hydrogen in 2030, for example, with rates that extend over the years.”

GAZBİR Chairman Yasar Arslan says that in Turkey and European countries, studies are being carried out on the injection of hydrogen into the natural gas distribution network. In a total of more than 50 projects in many European countries, especially Germany, it is aimed to mix natural gas with hydrogen and deliver it to the final consumer, and applications are carried out in pilot regions. Arslan says that studies on the integration of hydrogen into the natural gas distribution network are continuing at GAZMER’s R&D center in Konya, which is the technical center of GAZBIR. And he continues his words as: “The aim of the project is to reduce the carbon emission values of natural gas to the lowest level as a result of mixing natural gas with hydrogen in the following years and to reduce the import of natural gas thanks to the hydrogen obtained by domestic resources. The injection of hydrogen obtained by wind and solar energy into natural gas at a rate of up to 10% in the Phase-1 phase and 15% in the Phase-2 phase was successfully completed. Considering the economic effects of the project, as a result of mixing natural gas with hydrogen with a rate of 10%, natural gas imports of about US $ 2 billion per year can be prevented. Thanks to this project, the natural gas bill, which is about 12-13 billion US dollars per year, may decrease by about 15% in the coming years.”

“Turkey must take action in hydrogen energy technologies as soon as possible in order to become a global player”

PROF. DR. İSKENDER GÖKALP ODTÜ Mechanical Engineering Department

“THE NAME OF HYDROGEN was given by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the founder of modern chemistry. He was however beheaded in 1794 during the Terreur period following the French Revolution for being a tax collector on behalf of the king in the Orléans region prior to the revolution. Lavoisier derived the word hydrogen as “water generator” from the ancient Greek words “hydro” and “gennan”. Today the Word hydrogen is accepted in many languages, but the words “wasserstoff” in German, “vodorod” in Russian, “tc’ing-tc’I” in Chinese, “sui-so” in Japanese give the same meaning Lavoisier suggested. In Ottoman, there is the word “müvellidülma” which means the same. There is no Turkish equivalent for the word hydrogen.

Hydrogen is today seen as a means of decarbonising the economy, that is, saving it from carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and global warming, reaching an economic system that does not emit CO2 in 2050, and revitalizing the economic system that is currently in danger of a halt because of the pandemic situation. Billions of dollars and euros are put on the table to develop clean or green hydrogen production Technologies (that is, avoiding releasing CO2 by natural gas reforming technology and generating the so called “grey hydrogen”, as it is today) to reach commercial scales and to reduce green hydrogen production costs to the level that the economy can afford by 2030. It is very clear that hydrogen may contribute to the energy supply security of Turkey and to reduce global warming.

Turkey has enough sources to produce clean hydrogen by water electrolysis using renewable electricity. Turkey also has the potential to generate hydrogen from organic waste streams using appropriate technologies. Furthermore, Turkey possesses important Boron reserves, which is the most suitable metal for generating hydrogen by the hydrolysis of light metals. But we should remember that the security issue is larger than the only supply security. Due to its physical, chemical and thermal properties, the safety (fire, explosions) risks of hydrogen are much higher than natural gas. These risks arise especially during the transmission, storage and use of hydrogen. If hydrogen becomes an energy vector to be used by the general public in transportation, homes and workplaces, and not only by engineers and technicians in large scale industries, as it is today, I think there is a risk of making things worse while trying to be helpful. Therefore, Turkey may focus on technologies that minimize such risks, for example, developing technologies that will ensure “on demand and in situ” production and use of hydrogen In a similar vein, technological solutions that integrate organic waste disposal and hydrogen production may also provide a unique approach to Turkey.

In order for hydrogen to be included in the Turkish economy, it has to reach large consumer markets and this should be now, not 30 years later. Industrial sectors in strong need of hydrogen (refineries, chemical industries such as fertilizer production, glass industry, being the main ones) must be the first customers of clean hydrogen (and later sectors that have to free their production processes from CO2 emissions, such as cement and iron & steel). If we expand the market of clean hydrogen as soon as possible, hydrogen production and use technologies will be continuously improved through learning by doing and the unit production cost of hydrogen will be reduced. At the same time, Turkey would be prepared against export prohibitions of “CO2 intensive products” to be imposed from 2023 by the European Union with through policies such as the “Green Deal – Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms. Regulations necessary to promote the development of hydrogen technologies should be rapidly introduced by the legislator in Turkey. Turkey should enter these new areas without delay and a mobilization should be declared to become a global player in the hydrogen world. One important point to note is that technologies that will be the subject of such a mobilization should not increase Turkish foreign dependency, but reduce it. Here, the importance of University-Government-Industry cooperation is clearly seen. The establishment of a ‘Clean Hydrogen Alliance of Turkey’ with all relevant public and private stakeholders having a strong understanding of the national mobilization necessity, is the first and necessary step for Turkey to have a place in the hydrogen world. At the same time, institutions are the best antidote to prevent selfish behaviors.

“Energy policies are planned with imagination and visions and lived with realities”

BARIŞ SANLI Researcher at the Bilkent Center for Energy Policy

“THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF ‘Can Turkey become a hub of hydrogen?’ may not make much sense. But it deserves to be considered and discussed because it will bring us to other questions that will allow us to get the right answers. The first question is what will hydrogen’s place be in our lives in the future? Costs will determine the place of hydrogen in our lives. Indeed, if there is going to be a global increase in hydrogen investment, it needs 5-10 years for hydrogen to catch up with the scale.

The costs will be determined by two things: electricity price and automation. Most of the electrolysers produced today are handmade. So, it is impossible to create a scale in this way. The second question is a much more fundamental question in energy resources: Does supply breed demand, or demand breeds supply? As we have seen in past examples, supply generates demand in pioneering economies, and demand generates supply in subsequent economies. For this reason, the EU is focusing on supply. They have given a lot of electrolyzer promises. At the heart of the hydrogen strategy is the promise that they will split water into hydrogen and oxygen. But there is a missed point here. This brings us to the third question. Where will the hydrogen produced with so many electrolyzers be sold? We call this question the “market creation” question.

For this reason, EU strategies are a bit strange because they mostly carry the efforts of some bureaucrats to educate the lobbies of the industry sector on sharing the ready money among themselves. There are those who say that the EU will enter hydrogen business very quickly and will accept nothing but green hydrogen. But a senior EU official who spoke to Euractiv on December 9 said that without blue hydrogen (hydrogen obtained by carbon capture methods), the market would not exist. The first crack voice came from internal experts before the main policy discourse reached the first station. The fourth question is, what is the most economical way to use hydrogen? There is a latin phrase “festina lente” for these situations meaning “make haste slowly”. A fundamental problem in the EU and other parts of the world regarding the expression of the economic situation may be misleading everyone. The “modeling problem”, which is also included in the latest issues of Nature magazine, makes very difficult engineering adaptations possible in an Excel cell at a rate of 3-5% at a time. For example, the production of iron with green hydrogen from ore is just a number for the modeler, but it is a brand new investment and engineering service, new security and employment policy for the iron and steel producers. It’s a matter of time.

The most economical way for Turkey to involve the process is mixing hydrogen gas at the beginning level. This has many advantages. It is both economical and safer to make an update from nearby sectors instead of creating a sector from scratch. This will also be a solution to import dependency. But there are still problems. For example, how much hydrogen can be transported in metal pipes, how much should be improved technically, how this improvement will be made are some of the important questions. The most important point of the natural gas-hydrogen mixture is that it can be burned without any problems or changes in existing CCGT, ie combined cycle natural gas power plants, with a mixture ratio of close to 3%. If correct carbon pricing is done and flexibility in the electricity market is sufficiently rewarded, this can be a very rational way. Thus, Turkey can solve the problems of supply and market creation. Turkey’s second most important goal should be to use electricity and natural gas infrastructures together. Both are already in use, but the only thing that connects the two infrastructures is gas and hydro plants. Of course, we should not forget the cold weather. When we talk about the east-west energy flow of Turkey, what if we can produce hydrogen in the East and transfer it to the West in this way?

What if Turkey uses as much solar energy as its installed power and produces hydrogen using this energy, then store it in the Salt Lake and can offer it to gas turbines when flexibility is needed?

Until this stage is reached, there is another important stage, which concerns the future of plants that currently consume hydrogen. Refineries and chemical plants are doing almost the largest part of the hydrogen consumption and production in Turkey. Taking a legal decision that the hydrogen to be used by these facilities shall be green hydrogen and it is gradually increased over the years and determined as a legal procedure, such as it shall be 100% green hydrogen in 2030 may be an important policy step. If we start transportation with pipelines once, it will also affect our energy exchange with Europe. Now we have a electricity and gas trade over power lines and pipelines. But I don’t think the EU alone can achieve its very ambitious green hydrogen targets. For this reason, hydrogen import from neighboring countries will also be on the agenda. Integration of the EU’s existing infrastructures to hydrogen will be very important. I think there is a long way in front of hydrogen in Turkey, but if we do not give a start today or do not face our fears and don’t agree to get lessons from our experiences we may be another hubs/ terminal by time. This is quite sure. But if we want to become a real terminal, we need to step out of the door and hit the road.”