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Mete Baysal

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Kurucu Ortak – Yeni ve Yenilenebilir Enerji Teknolojileri Grup Başkanı

E Plato Teknoloji A.Ş.

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Green Hydrogen and its Forthcoming Opportunities for Turkey

Hydrogen is one of the four integral pillars of the new process as now called decarbonization or the transition to clean energy. The other three are energy efficiency, renewable energy and renewable energy-based electrification. Hydrogen is intertwined with these three elements and is currently the popular focus of our industry. Although it was considered a far-fetched idea for many years, we have known hydrogen as a pure and dense energy carrier/vector and storage element. But with the increasing negative effects of global warming, especially in the last five years, the process of replacing fossil fuels with clean hydrogen has been given a rapid start at national, regional and global scales, especially in developed and industrialized countries. This process has dashed after the pandemic and especially the flow of natural gas to Europe was cut off due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Despite its jump-start, the transition from fossil fuels to hydrogen will not be so quick, smooth and easy. First of all, even if international and national support is received and financing is provided, it will take time for the end-to-end structures of clean hydrogen and hydrogen-based alternative fuels to reach the targeted technological readiness levels. There are serious differences between countries and regions in regulations, standards, certification and verification processes, and it does not seem possible to introduce an international standard and norm in a short time. In fact, the primary goal in the short and medium term is to ensure harmony with minimum divergence in standards and certification processes amongst countries and regions. It will also take time for it to become a commercial commodity on a global scale. International trade will be carried out directly and through bilateral agreements in the initial stages. It should not be expected that its trade volume will immediately gain as much depth as oil, natural gas or coal before hydrogen becomes a global commodity too. It is necessary to be patient and give time so that meticulous studies are to be carried out through international establishments and organizations, and the majority of countries together with key production and consumption regions on a global scale must participate in the determination of the methods and the decisions. But hydrogen technology and its construct as well are henceforward new and important elements of our society and energy industry ecosystem and no return should be expected after this stage…

At this point, the question that needs to be examined and answered should be: Can our investors foresee the road map of industrial large-scale production and international trade as a commodity in parallel with the rapid technological development of “Clean/Low-emission/Green or Blue” hydrogen and take the right positions today?

I aimed for this article to be as free of technical content and jargon as possible, to avoid numbers unless necessary, and ultimately to be easy to read. There are many valuable and satisfying detailed sectoral studies, academic publications and references that can be easily accessed on a national and global scale by those who are curious. However, I would still like to outline the general characteristics of hydrogen, its basic units and definitions, production and consumption values on an international scale, and future projections. So much so that the sections containing the purpose of the article should be clearly understood and interpreted by the reader. I will try to round the numbers in a way that is easy to recall and give technical explanations as simple but comprehendible as possible.

Basics:

Hydrogen (H₂) is a colorless, odorless and tasteless, highly flammable and very light substance that makes up the majority of the universe and is always found in our world as a compound with other elements. It exists alone as a molecule and in the gas phase under standard conditions. It is the element with the highest chemical energy on a mass basis. But since its density is very low, we need to transform it into different forms using physical and chemical methods during transportation, storage and use, and manage them acutely as well.

Under standard conditions (20 °C temperature and 1 atmosphere “atm” pressure), one cubic meter (Sm³) weighs only 84 grams. For example, the mass density of natural gas, which can also be considered quite light, is 680 g/Sm³ under standard conditions. In other words, H₂ is 8 times lighter than natural gas, which is already a light hydrocarbon. When we compress it at 700 bar(g) pressure, one m³ H₂ weighs 44 kg. When we liquefy it at -253 °C, one m³ of liquid hydrogen (LH₂) weighs 71 kg. When we imbue it to liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC), which are still in the development phase, we can carry an average of 55 kg in 1 m³, with the total weight of LOHC being around 1,100 kg. If we convert it into ammonia (NH₃), approximately 175 kg of H₂ is chemically bonded in 1,000 kg of it.

When H₂ comes into contact with oxygen and burns, only water vapor (H₂O) is formed. Thermal content is very high by mass. Its higher calorific value (HCV) is 142 and its lower calorific value (LCV) is 120 MJ/kg. In this case, if we compare on a mass basis, its LCV is approximately 3.5 times of the LCV of natural gas according to BOTAŞ specifications. But if we compare it in terms of volumetric calorific value, it is very low being only about 3/10 of the LCV of natural gas. Thermodynamics and heat balance calculations in electricity generation and industrial and high-temperature steam and heat production are made through LCVs. However, the HCV of H₂ can be taken into account when used as a raw material in fuel cells operating at low temperatures and in the chemical and petrochemical processes.

Note: 1 MJ (or Megajoule) = 1,000 Kilo Joules = 1 Million Joules = 240 Kcal = 0.28 kWh

H₂ is a very flammable molecule. The ignition zone in air is in the range of 4-75% by volume. In other words, if it is not present very sparsely or very densely in a closed environment, it may somehow catch fire. It burns very quickly, and its flame is not visible. For this reason, utmost care must be taken in its production, transportation, storage and end use, and only H₂-specific technologies must be used. These technologies are available, mature, and reliable.

There are various production methods of H₂, the most well-known being its production from water via electrolysis; and as a result, H₂ is produced in different purities. Of course, after production, it is possible to increase the purity of the product through purification technologies by incurring additional investment and operating costs. High purity H₂ is used to ensure that fuel cells produce electricity smoothly and uninterruptedly, which is 99.99% and above at the technological level they have currently reached, albeit fuel cell technologies and systems that can operate at lower purities are currently being developed. Although purity of 99% and above is generally required in industrial applications, there are also processes that can use H₂ as a raw material with a purity of 90% and above. However, if a general trade in the form of commodities is planned, even within a regional market, the sales opportunity and price of a product with greater purity will be higher apart from bilateral agreements.

By the end of 2022, 95 million tons of H₂ have been produced and used globally. Approximately 62% of this was produced from natural gas and 21% from coal, using steam methane reforming (SMR) and gasification technologies (GT), respectively. The remainder was obtained from industrial processes as by-products. In addition, the chemical (such as chlor-alkali) and petrochemical (such as the cracking of naphtha) sectors produce it as by-products and co-products in their own production processes. This is estimated to be approximately 30 million tons annually and is converted into energy (electricity and/or heat) at the production site or consumed directly as raw material in existing processes. It is widely used in the production of NH₃ and methanol (CH₃OH) and in other industries, such as in the production and processing of iron and steel, petrochemicals and glass.

Currently, the share of low-emission H₂ (produced from natural gas by capturing carbon dioxide and by means of electrolysis from renewable electricity) is less than 1% of total annual production, but according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero Emissions (NZE) Scenario, it will reach 70 million tones/year in 2030. Again, based on the NZE Scenario, global production and consumption are expected to reach 420 million tons/year by 2050.

NH₃, as a commercial chemical and also a stable H₂ carrier, appears as an important product in the transition to clean energy. In 2022, global NH₃ consumption was around 190 million tons. NH₃ is an important raw material and commodity used extensively in the chemical sector and industry, especially in fertilizer production. It is also on the agenda to use it as an alternative and/or mixed fuel in ship engines, in gas turbines and some coal-fired power plants. Many successful tests and trials have been completed. We expect it to be widely used here in a near future. For this reason, it would be correct to evaluate low-emission H₂ and low-emission NH₃ production and trade together in preliminary engineering studies.

Green or Blue, Clean or Low-Emission/Carbon Hydrogen: How Much Green and Blue, Clean and Low-Emission?

When the use of H₂ as an alternative to fossil fuels became increasingly on the agenda during the global transition to clean energy, multiple definitions were made with colors according to their raw materials, production inputs (such as renewable electricity) and technologies, in a way that could be easily understood and remembered. Such as green, blue, grey, turquoise and pink, and so on.

The “green hydrogen” as we will refer in this article defines H₂ produced from entirely renewable electricity via electrolysis or from biogenic organic waste (such as domestic “municipal” solid waste, forest and agricultural/livestock waste). Electrolysis technologies are also advancing and electrolyzers with more efficiency and higher production factors are being developed. Today, 1 kg of H₂ is produced from approximately 10 kg of pure water by consuming an average of 50 kWh of electricity.

“Blue hydrogen” is produced from fossil fuels using classical production technologies (steam methane reforming, gasification, etc.). But the carbon dioxide (CO₂) released during production is captured and stored permanently or used cyclically (CCUS technologies). Simultaneously, depending on the intensity of the carbon footprint, broad and abstract definitions such as clean, low-emission/carbon, and environmentally friendly, as well as referring to a variety of colors, have begun to be used as general concepts to classify and introduce H₂.

We have now started to recognize clean H₂ on a global scale and we know for what purpose and in what way we want to use it instead of fossil fuels. In the next stage, we need to define it in concrete, clear and comparable units and standards in order to use it in both technical and commercial applications and activities and to evaluate it as a reference. This can only happen on the bases of unit mass or unit energy.

Although there are many organic or artificial gases that are naturally released or created directly or indirectly by humans and have a greenhouse effect in the atmosphere, three of them have a high share: CO₂, Methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide, also known as nitrogen protoxide (N₂O). Since CO₂ contains the largest proportion in volume or mass dimensions in the atmosphere, the others are given as CO₂ equivalent in the literature. The calculation is made based on the greenhouse gas impact factor (Global Warming Factor “GWF”) that these gases will create when they remain in the atmosphere for 100 years. When GWF effect of 1 kg CO₂ is taken as 1, this is used in the calculations as 28 times for 1 kg CH₄ and 265 times for 1 kg N₂O.

The totals of a certain mixture of these gases according to GWF are shown with the abbreviation CO₂ mass (kg) equivalent (CO_2e) and are given proportionally per unit H₂ as mass (kg) and energy (GJ “thousand MJ” or MWh “thousand kWh”). Thus, the standard units to be used to show the carbon content of the H₂ produced are: “kg CO_2e/kg H₂” and “kgCO_2e/GJ” or “kgCO_2e/MWh”.

In IEA’s 2023 Global Hydrogen Report, emission intensities according to the raw materials, production inputs and technologies used for current H₂ production are given as “kgCO_2e/kgH₂” as follows;

10-13 with SMR from natural gas

1.5-6.2 with SMR + CCUS from natural gas

22-26 with GT from coal

2.6-6.3 with GT + CCUS from coal

25 by Electrolysis from Mains (Grid) Electricity

3.5 From biomass* without CCUS

-22 From biomass with CCUS

*Short rotation and biogenic organic wastes such as domestic solid wastes and forest and agricultural/livestock wastes

Of course, in these calculations, many assumptions are made, and the averages of various statistical data are used. The setting of lower and upper limits in the production of H₂ from natural gas and coal stems from the addition of these averages of emissions (including CH₄) that occur during the extraction of natural gas and mining of coal and subsequent purification, processing, transmission and transportation of both, which vary at certain intervals depending on the region and the technology used. For this reason, even if a large part of the CO₂ coming out of the process is captured and stored permanently using CCUS technologies, these emissions during the production, processing and transmission of raw materials remain above the emission intensity value of H₂.

In this paper, I based my study on an average carbon emission intensity value of 500 g CO₂/kWh for the grid (mains) electricity. While this value is very low in countries such as Norway, Sweden or Iceland, which generate large amounts of grid electricity from renewable sources, it will be higher in countries that rely heavily on coal, such as China, Poland, South Africa or India. Likewise, in France, which obtains most of its electricity from nuclear power plants, the carbon emission intensity of grid electricity is relatively low. On the other hand, if H₂ is obtained by electrolysis through electricity produced from photovoltaic solar panels, wind or geothermal power plants and other renewable sources, its emission intensity (kgCO2_e/kgH₂) resulting from its production factor will be zero. However, the unit emission amount released for the losses of electricity transmission and distribution networks and the electricity consumption during the operation of the networks can be taken into account according to the content of the standards and norms. Perhaps for this reason, the European Union wants electrolysis units to be installed as directly connected to and integrated with renewable electricity generation facilities and in the same location and implies some incentives and some restrictions. Thus, they want to guarantee the synchroneity of electricity production and consumption in electrolyzers, avoiding both transmission and distribution losses and the gaps that may be brought by the offset between renewable electricity production and consumption in the electrolyzer at certain periods (and which may underestimate the CO_2e emission, which is actually higher). This is highly unlikely feasible unless a technically and commercially viable storage unit such as batteries is integrated into the system. If these units are added, it will significantly increase the investment cost. If it is not added, it will cause the electrolyzers to work inefficiently with a utilization ratio well below their installed rate.

The unit emission intensity value that occurs in biomass is not caused by biomass and is formed due to the energy consumed during the collection, handling and transportation of biomass and the emissions made due to electricity or fossil fuels used in its production. But if the CO₂ formed during H₂ production is captured and stored for a long time with a CCUS technology, you actually withdraw a large amount of CO₂ from its natural cycle in the atmosphere. Therefore, the value becomes negative.

These figures do not include the CO₂ emitted during the installation of facilities that will produce H₂ and the manufacturing of machinery, equipment and similar items used. Likewise, for example, if electricity is taken from the grid, the emissions produced during the installation of power plants and the transmission and distribution network and the manufacturing of their equipment are not included. When their amounts are distributed over the years according to their technical and economic lifespan, they turn out to be quite low. There is also a lot of assumptions and exceptions to be made. In other words, their calculations may be somewhat complex and involve subjective evaluations. However, as H₂ volumes grow and its trade increases, calculation methodologies for emissions from new low-emission production facilities and infrastructures will have been created and taken into account in the future.

As one would appreciate that it is not possible to show the net emission intensity of H₂ with abstract concepts such as “a color” or “low emission” under so many alternatives and acceptance. Moreover, even two separate electrolysis productions that are considered green may have serious differences in kgCO_2e/kgH₂ values due to network losses and simultaneous offset differences. In other words, by means of these rather ambiguous definitions, official standards bodies and supervisory authorities cannot monitor emissions simply, effectively and fairly (with an indiscriminate application). In addition, even if it does not seem to cause problems in the near future in bilateral agreements that made for certain periods, consecutive purchases and sales of H₂ in this intangible state would be difficult in spot and over-the-counter markets; and as a result, commercial depth as a commodity cannot be achieved.

IEA has launched a fairly new study through the International Standards Organization (ISO) in partnership with the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE). It is planned that the working draft will be completed by the end of 2023 by expanding its content under the existing ISO 14687 code. It will then be further evaluated together with IEA and IPHE and other relevant stakeholders and will be published and come into force at the beginning of 2025. On the other hand, it has recently published a methodology that detects greenhouse gas emissions related to the production, conditioning and transportation of H₂ technologies up to the point of consumption, with the code ISO/DTS 19870. IEA proposed a scale starting from “A”, the lowest emission zone, and going up to “I” until above study is concluded, and final H₂ emission standards are established. The scale starts from 0-0.5 for class “A” in kgCO_2e/kgH₂ unit and ends at 5.5-7 for class “I”. It is stated that such a numerical scale and gradual emission classification will enable a clearer and more absolute comparison and evaluation.

End-to-End Design and Calculation of Emission Intensity at All Steps is Required for the Production and Marketing of Hydrogen: Challenges and Opportunities

So, how should investors who intend to enter the low-emission H₂ ecosystem make an investment plan before global regulations become the norm and common standards are determined?

How can one start from scratch for technology selection, preliminary project planning with energy and material flows, emission intensity calculations, determination of potential buyers and commercial sales conditions?

In preliminary studies, it is essential to carry out end-to-end engineering planning from the very beginning (FEED), regardless of how and on which parties say producer, transporter or end users will have the actual emitters and bear responsibilities when the project is implemented.

This construction should basically include the following elements:

• Procurement, processing, handling and transportation of raw materials or electricity from production points as input to the H₂ production site,
• Production together with by-products and co-products,
• Control, storage, use in other processes or disposal of solid, liquid and gaseous wastes including the capture and permanent storage of CO₂ from production,
• Storing H₂ by physical change (compression or liquefaction) or chemically converting it into different products and ingredients (NH₃, LOHC and H₂-based synthetic fuels),
• Transport of H₂ or H₂-based products to the consumption site,
• Storage as H₂ or H₂-based products at the consumption site,
• Separation and recovery of H₂ from H₂-based products by cracking (decomposition).

All of these stages need to be evaluated one by one and sequentially, and emission intensity calculations and waste management and environmental impact assessments must be made.

In addition, it is important to create and record a detailed methodology of the emission intensity calculations at each of these stages, together with the assumptions and predictions to be made. Thus, in the event that standards are determined, and regulatory norms are established in the future, one could be prepared, perhaps with a few retouches and fine adjustments, for the examination, approval and audit (verification) processes of the relevant national and international authorized institutions and organizations. It will be a great advantage to already create the infrastructure of distributed ledger technology via block-chain for easy tracking of the emission intensity value at each stage. Namely, proposal preparations and pricing, including the revised design and emission intensity calculations that may be required, will be made quickly and marketing activities will be carried out from the beginning and with a wider potential, optionally over various stages of the product in the receiving environment since what will be given and received in the distribution of responsibilities to the parties at the stages can be easily and quickly determined and followed instantly.

The processes and technologies in the physical and chemical preparations of the electricity and raw materials to be used in the production of H₂, as well as the production of H₂ itself and its subsequent storage and transportation, create inherently a tremendous energy optimization environment. Combined electricity and heat (cogeneration or even trigeneration) applications can be adapted so much so that the selection of the facility location can be determined specifically for this goal, for example, the waste heat of an active power plant can be used, or excess electricity can be supplied to this power plant or to consumption points such as industrial or central heating with the waste heat resulting from the processes. In this way, total system efficiency can be maximized, and economic return can be increased. As a result, two important advantages can be achieved:

1. If the use of mains electricity or heat supply from fossil fuels is somehow unavoidable, this can be minimized and the emission intensity of H₂ can be kept as low as possible.
2. Costs can be reduced through efficiency while operating revenues are increased holistically.

As an example, assume that the produced H₂ will be transported to the consumption site via in the form of LOHC. The process of converting H₂ to LOHC (hydrogenation) is carried out as a result of an exothermic reaction using catalysts. For every kg of H₂, 10 kWh of heat is generated at approximately 200 °C. If we can utilize this heat at a consumption point inside and outside the facility, we can achieve efficiency and economic gain. Likewise, at the delivery point, we release H₂ again with a reverse heat-consuming reaction (dehydrogenation), this time giving 11 kWh of heat per kg at a temperature of approximately 300 °C. If we can exploit and supply this heat under suitable conditions from a different energy production point, such as a nearby thermal power plant, which will in any case release it from its cycle for cooling purposes, there will be no additional energy loss and a serious additional cost burden could be avoided.

LH₂, for example, contains a significant cold thermodynamic energy at -253 °C. Once LH₂ is liquefied by consuming intense electrical energy, it enters the cold cycle, and with a planned and careful setup, this cold energy can be utilized to the maximum extent during the transportation and storage phases and until it is regasified. For example, when gasified in places such as cold storages (for example a cold-storage warehouse), the cold heat can be transferred as useful heat. Or a certain amount of electricity can be produced again during gasification. Thus, while the end-to-end and total system efficiency is kept at the highest possible level, a greater economic return is achieved and the emission intensity of the product H₂ is not allowed to increase.

Besides there are wide opportunities for cogeneration applications in the process of H₂ production from natural gas, coal and biomass. What needs to be done is to create an interior design from scratch that will use the excess heat that will occur during the processes within the facility or provide the required heat, or, in case there is still excess or need, to identify external consumption or production points and develop a general design suitable for these locations. This also applies to the physical or chemical transformation of H₂ and its conversion at the point of delivery. Large industrial complexes that can produce electricity and heat with high efficiency while capturing, eliminating or storing emissions from their integrated power plants and processes and that exchange practically this heat (hot or cold) and electricity with its environment seem to stand out as target locations where H₂ production or delivery facilities can be established next to them.

There is also some heat output resulting from reactions in electrolysis and fuel cells. Since there are no high temperatures in current technologies, it can be used in a limited way and for heating purposes. However, solid oxide electrolyzers (SOEC) or fuel cells (SOFC), which are in the experimental phase and whose commercial applications are expected to become widespread within a few years, can also be evaluated in a versatile way in energy optimization studies within the framework given above.

Exporting Low Emission Hydrogen to Europe: A great opportunity for our country

In the process of decarbonization targets, the European Union (EU) not only included energy efficiency, increasing the weight of renewable energies and electrification processes on its agenda, but also emphasized the broad use of low-emission H_{2 and} made its regulations and set out targets for actions to be taken within a timetable too. In this context, it brought the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) into force in 2018 and is constantly making additions to increase the weight of renewable and clean energy technologies in its energy portfolio. On the other hand, the EU, which had problems in the supply security of fossil-based fuels, especially natural gas, and whose costs increased exponentially after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, implemented the RePowerEu program in 2022. Within the framework of all these regulations and plans, a low-emission H₂ production capacity of at least 10 million tons per year has to be created and the output has to be put on the markets within the EU whereas an additional 10 million tons/year of low-emission H₂ has to be imported from countries outside the EU by completing the necessary physical infrastructure and making the offtaking (sales and purchase) agreements until 2030.

A low-emission H₂ import amount of 10 million tons/year is a very large volume. If a comparison is made by means of its thermal energy equivalence, it corresponds to approximately 35 billion Sm³ of natural gas annually. Since it can also be used directly in the manufacture of chemical and petrochemical products, higher equivalent amounts can be found compared to natural gas or crude oil-derived raw materials by matching substitute H₂ mass for conventional hydrocarbon-based feedstock.

If we consider the CIF delivery price of H₂ with an emission density below 0.5 kgCO_2e/kgH₂ (Class A), we are as of today talking about a total annual sales amount of approximately 100 billion Euros. Of course, costs and sales figures will decrease in the future as technologies will develop resulting in further increases in the efficiencies and economies of scale, but still a very attractive market is right next to us geographically.

As of now, the EU has established connections and started to develop projects to bring a certain amount of these imports from Africa, Australia and South America. It wants to build large solar and wind power plants on the coastline here, convert the renewable electricity into H₂ through electrolysis and send it to Europe. It is also in close contact with the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia. Although there is production of renewable electricity in this region, it is planned to bring mainly blue H₂, which is mainly obtained from natural gas through CCUS and by capturing its carbon.

But there is a problem. Europe currently does not want H₂ produced from fossil fuels, even though CO₂ is captured and stored and has low emission intensity. Such H₂s have been excluded (for now) from the regulations. There is no limit for production from biomass, but we can predict that they will strictly control and monitor emission details and compliance with sustainability criteria throughout their end-to-end production. I presume that these restrictions will hinder them in meeting their H₂ targets to be imported and think furthermore that after a while, they will include this blue H₂ in their portfolio by imposing in parallel ambitious emission intensity limits and heavy sustainability criteria.

How can we, as Türkiye, get a share of this attractive market?

Considering our geographical proximity and our ability to transport large volumes to long distances via pipelines and sea, and smaller tonnages to short distances via land and railways, we can probably target an annual sales volume of one million tons at first. So, in what ways and with which economic and competitive technologies can we produce this H₂? The electrolysis method from renewable electricity seems the most plausible, but is it? Our country pays a significant amount of foreign currency for the import of fossil fuels and is strategically dependent on foreign sources for its supplies. So renewable electricity will not be used in H₂ production without first bringing its share in national electricity generation to a certain level, even if the added values to produce and export H₂ to be created may be much higher in the first years. We will want to use it first for our own electricity consumption directly. A certain amount of renewable electricity can of course be used to produce H₂ for export, but this may only take up a small share of the targeted volume. On the other hand, our natural gas and oil reserves and domestic production values are still low, and Europe does not want this method right now either. In other words, it is not plausible to convert them into H₂ using clean technologies. We have significant amounts of lignite reserves. Low-emission production from coal using GT and CCUS methods can be considered. However, these need to be made in large sizes due to necessity of economies of scale. A serious push for huge foreign financing schemes will be required too. In this prevailing conjuncture, we can receive neither financial nor technological support from the West for coal technologies, no matter how clean and environmentally friendly they are. Construction times will also be quite long. It is also necessary to take into account the existence of suitable underground geology to store such a high amount of CO₂. H₂ production from the electricity of nuclear power plants will not be possible or economical until free and idle electricity generation (surplus) capacity is created, and their electricity generation costs reduce as facility depreciations are over.

However, we can aim to create a significant volume by utilizing various biomass and municipal domestic/organic solid waste. Why and in what way?:

• With good project planning, we can produce very valuable H₂ with zero or even below-zero emission intensity from biogenic organic solid waste.
• There are proprietary technologies that will achieve this, such as pyrolysis, thermolysis and gasification, which have already attained high technological readiness levels, have successfully passed pilot applications, and have even gained experience at the industrial level.
• In addition to storing the CO₂ from the process underground, we can transform it into solid materials in a permanent and safe way, for example, by using fly ash from thermal power plants, and even turn it into useful products that can be used in construction activities. Such registered technologies have successfully completed their pilot stages and are being transitioned to large-scale commercial applications.
• In the later stages, we can convert the existing conventional waste-to-power plants, as they complete their depreciation period and their investments are paid back, to zero-emission H₂ production facilities. The existing waste-to-power plants contain serious CH₄ leaks during their landfilling and digestion stages, and the purification and combustion processes. Processed biogases are afterwards converted into electricity at relatively low cycle efficiencies in gas engines. Additionally, these plants still emit CO₂ in the atmosphere after combustion.
• Turkey’s annual organic domestic solid waste is estimated to be around 12-15 million tons. It is possible to produce one million tons of clean H₂ annually out of this amount. Of course, it would be appropriate to start with the organic solid wastes of relatively large settlements that cannot currently be utilized but dumped in wasteyards. But clusters (organic solid waste H₂ production farms) can also be established as aggregate facilities to exploit and utilize the organic solid wastes of multiple settlements that are geographically close to each other.
• In addition to domestic organic solid waste, biogenic organic solid waste from industry, agriculture/livestock and forestry can also be exploited in the same way. Plus, since they are auto-thermal technologies that provide their own energy, plastics and papers with comparatively higher energy content, which are not recyclable or cannot be separated because of contamination with other organic wastes for recycling, can also be used as energy input in these processes, and at the same time, they can be disposed of without harming the environment.
• Most of the machinery, equipment and units within these technologies can be manufactured locally in our country. By using the experience and knowledge gained in collecting and handling waste in the most effective and efficient way, producing H₂, transforming it physically and/or chemically, storing, transporting to and converting it at final consumption points, new projects can be developed at an international level, starting from our hinterland, and complete turnkey commitments can be undertaken by our industrial contractors.
• As mentioned above, after an end-to-end project design and emission intensity preliminary calculations are completed, one-on-one meetings and medium and long-term offtake agreements can be made with potential buyers. These purchase agreements will also bring in favorable external financing opportunities for the installation of the facilities.

How Can We Start? What needs to be done and expected support:

Globally, on a country basis, there are currently 14 regulations and standards-based legislation with various emission intensity and sustainability criteria. New ones may appear at any time and there could also be significant changes in existing ones. For this reason, until the standards developed by ISO with the support of IEA and IPHE are finally created and become valid on a global scale, the studies that include all the end-to-end stages mentioned above should be carried out by targeting an emission intensity close to zero. Here, private sector companies that will develop the projects should work in close cooperation with relevant public institutions and organizations, especially universities and institutes and NGOs, and national H₂ regulations should be created and national standards should be issued in parallel with global developments.

Regardless of the location where they are established, all low-emission H₂ production and export projects should be given the highest degree of incentive as a “project of strategic importance”.

In order for investors to consider the option of transporting the product H₂ through pipelines, “the Network Operation Regulation for Natural Gas admixed with H₂” should be prepared by determining the technical conditions for its injection to the natural gas grid through the national transmission and/or regional distribution network, and the entry, exit and operating conditions should be concluded. In addition, within the scope of H₂-doped natural gas trade, other basic procedures and principles, especially custody transfers including exporting abroad through interconnector lines should be established.

In order to support industry cooperation with universities and institutes, the State should cover, to a certain extent, the costs of analyses and applied R&D studies to be carried out by investors for incentive purposes in the laboratories and facilities of these institutions.

If necessary, priority land should be allocated on suitable coastlines for H₂ facilities (preferably from the Public Property), which will meet possible future capacity increases and include areas that will be required by additional facilities such as the NH₃ production facility as well as full-fledged storage units and a pier where large tanker ships can dock for dispatching. Once such a complex having a direct export infrastructure and logistics leg is established, low-emission H₂ produced from at various points in Turkey would be collected here and exported via the same infrastructure in the future.

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