Our guest writer today is Yusuf Furkan Ergür, co-founder of local startup Phoenix Energy.
Today, we will talk about the hydrogen economy report published by BloombergNEF. Before starting my article on the subject, I would like to tell you about Phoenix Energy and what exactly we do as the manager of this company.
Hydrogen is one of the valuable fuels today and many methods have been found for the production of this fuel, and the transportation of hydrogen fuel is also one of the known technologies, but the existence of a technology does not make that technology applicable. The fact that the transportation costs of hydrogen are quite expensive is the biggest obstacle to the widespread use of this gas with high energy value, and as an energy company, we can produce hydrogen by spraying water on carbon monoxide gas, a flue gas that is frequently encountered as a result of the widespread use of coal fuel in heavy industry. We separate the produced hydrogen with our patented product, our separator, without changing any physical flue value, and offer it to the use of the factory as fuel. As a result of various POCs in the Cement and Iron and Steel sectors, we discovered that a rate of 13% to 30% of the fuel can be met with this method. We are also continuing our commercial studies on the subject.
Now let’s come to the published report:
The report briefly sees hydrogen as an alternative to renewable energy. I think we all know the storage problem in renewable energy with the example of California. Producing more than needed means throwing away energy due to problems with storage and transmission when it comes to renewable energy. The general opinion in the world, as discussed in the report, is to establish hydrogen production systems that use renewable energy as a source.
As Phoenix, I mentioned the solution we offered to heavy industry before the world countries reached this advanced technology point at the beginning of the article. The combustion systems in companies can also burn without needing a revision when the fuel is as much hydrogen as Phoenix recovers from the flue gas as a percentage. At this point, Phoenix’s current technology, which has a small investment cost that even looks funny next to the cost of a renewable energy facility, can be the first step to getting to know hydrogen.
When I ask myself what comes next: I am faced with the issue of hydrogen production through methane degradation, which we frequently encounter in the report and technology news. It is an existing and cheap technology that is frequently used for hydrogen production. When I did a little more research on this technology, we came across an R&D project that Phoenix is conducting with a company that performs methane degradation and uses hydrogen in product production. Yes, the reaction where we produce 4 units of hydrogen from 1 unit of methane by decomposing methane with high temperatures is a technology that we frequently encounter in both the glass industry and refineries. However, the gas obtained as a result of the relevant reactions is a mixed gas with a high amount of carbon dioxide. In the R&D study we mentioned, we aim to obtain pure hydrogen separated from carbon dioxide gas with the separator that Phoenix uses to separate hydrogen from other flue gases in its POCs. The pure hydrogen obtained in this way provides an emission solution in refineries and offers us the promise of better tinning in the glass industry.
You talked about the current situation, what the world is doing and R&D, so I can almost hear you say where is your goal?
My goal is as follows:
“The most difficult energy source to end in the world is garbage. Yes, you heard right, garbage.”
We obtain energy by storing garbage and burning the LFG gas we produce. Unfortunately, we do this with very low efficiency even in these years when we are moving towards perfection in engineering. However, it is possible to improve this system. This system can be made more efficient by converting methane gas, which makes up more than half of the LFG gas, into hydrogen. We can see in the articles that this study alone increases the electricity production of the system by 70%. What if we prefer to separate the hydrogen from the gases we have as a result of this conversion? This is possible with the Phoenix separator. If we prefer this method, only the carbon dioxide remaining from the separation will return to the garbage storage unit and will be in an amount that can increase LFG production by 3 times. The remaining pure hydrogen can be burned in a way that produces 4.2 times more energy. To summarize briefly: We can convert our garbage into electricity much more efficiently than the current system without releasing any gas other than the water vapor formed as a result of the combustion of hydrogen.
As someone who has not even reached the age of 30 but has devoted the last 6 years of his life to hydrogen, I can summarize this report as follows: It was necessary and important for the world to turn its eyes to hydrogen, thank you for providing this, but until we reach that wonderful final point targeted in the report, the world needs the intermediate forms I mentioned. In addition, we can also produce hydrogen with our garbage, which we produce every day without emitting emissions, although it cannot be fully renewable and will continue to produce until the human race is extinct.
Source: https://egirisim.com/2020/04/14/dunyada-sonunun-gelmesi-en-zor-olan-enerji-kaynagi-cop/
