Hydrogen

Anasayfa Faaliyet Alanları Hydrogen

Hydrogen

THE WORLD NEEDS HYDROGEN!

In the 21st century, energy has an extremely important place in achieving the goal of sustainable development. In particular, the use of fossil-based fuels to meet societies’ energy needs causes significant economic, environmental and social problems. From this perspective, hydrogen energy emerges as the most important alternative for resolving these problems.

So why has hydrogen, a clean and high-energy source, not achieved the place it deserves in energy scenarios?

Although hydrogen is the most abundant substance in the world, we are unable to benefit from its energy as we should.

To date, studies concerning hydrogen-production technologies have fallen far short of the expected efficiency. Due to high energy costs and maintenance expenses, it has not been possible to produce safe, abundant and affordable HYDROGEN, or energy from hydrogen, in the desired quality and quantity.

When energy sources are examined, although there is almost no other energy source that could serve as an alternative to hydrogen, HYDROGEN energy has not even entered the literature.

IF WE TAKE A BRIEF LOOK AT HYDROGEN SOURCES AND CONVENTIONAL PRODUCTION METHODS:

Hydrogen can be produced from various sources, and these production methods vary according to the source used.

There Are Essentially Four Main Production Methods:

1. Hydrogen Production from Fossil Fuels (Natural Gas and Coal)

Natural Gas Reforming (Steam Methane Reforming—SMR): This is the most widely used production method in the world. Hydrogen is obtained by reacting natural gas with high-temperature steam. As a result of this process, carbohydrates (CO₂) are also produced as a by-product.

Coal Gasification: Coal is reacted with steam at high temperature and pressure to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide then reacts with steam to produce hydrogen through the water–gas shift reaction.

2. Hydrogen Production from Biomass

Biomass Gasification: Hydrogen and other gases are obtained by reacting biomass—organic materials such as plant and animal waste—with high-temperature steam.

Biological Processes: Certain microorganisms (bacteria) can produce hydrogen from biological/organic materials. These processes are generally carried out by breaking down organic waste using biochemical substances.

3. Hydrogen Production from Water and Electricity

Electrolysis: This is the process of separating water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules by applying an electric current. The electrical energy used in this process is generally supplied by alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and hydroelectric power. Hydrogen energy obtained in this way is known as “Green Hydrogen.”

Alkaline Electrolysis: This is one of the conventional electrolysis methods.

PEM Electrolysis: More efficient electrolysis is performed using a proton-exchange membrane (PEM).

Thermal Water Splitting: This involves directly separating water into hydrogen and oxygen at high temperatures. Nuclear energy is generally used for this purpose.

4. Other Sources and Methods

Photolysis: The direct separation of water into hydrogen and oxygen using sunlight.

Thermochemical Water Splitting: Processes that separate water using different chemical substances and high temperatures.

The impact of hydrogen conversion varies depending on the production source. Energy produced from fossil fuels creates carbon emissions, while energy produced using sources such as electrolysis is environmentally friendly and carbon-emission-free.

General Disadvantages of the Hydrogen-Gas Production Processes Summarised Under the Four Main Categories:

They require large and extensive areas.
They involve extremely high installation and operating costs.
They consume significantly more energy than they produce.
Their hydrogen-gas production speeds and capacities are low.
The hydrogen gas they produce involves problems related to preservation, storage, transportation and use.

In Addition to Involving Numerous Economic and Physical Problems, HYDROGEN GAS:

Is extremely dangerous to store and use unless advanced technological and high-cost safety precautions are implemented.

It has one of the highest levels of flammability and explosiveness among all gases in the world.
Its flame is invisible.
It has high diffusivity. As it is the molecule with the smallest volume in the world, leak detection and storage are extremely difficult.
Risk of asphyxiation: It is a colourless and odourless gas and may cause undetected asphyxiation in environments without sufficient oxygen.
It may explode in the presence of static electricity.
Its storage pressure is extremely high, and it does not liquefy easily. When stored under pressure, it can reach extremely low sub-zero temperatures during discharge.
It reacts very rapidly with all types of oxidising substances.

Although the use of hydrogen gas presents significant opportunities, particularly in the fields of energy and fuel systems, its safe use requires a high level of care during storage, transportation and utilisation. Storing it while taking these hazards into consideration requires effective safety measures and technological solutions.

In Addition to All These Factors, the Difficulties Associated with Using HYDROGEN Include:

Its calorific value is extremely high. Its use in commercially available automobiles and vehicle engines, generators, power plants and heating systems such as combi boilers, boilers and burners requires numerous technical modifications and safety measures.
Its use and storage as an energy source in vehicles such as automobiles, aircraft, trains and ships require extremely expensive technologies.
It can react with oxygen in fuel cells such as Fuel Cells to generate electrical energy; however, the materials and raw materials used in this technology are expensive and are generally produced from ores that are scarce in nature.

For example, to use hydrogen in automotive technology, hydrogen gas produced through expensive production techniques must be stored in liquid-hydrogen tanks and converted into electricity in Fuel Cells, which are significantly more expensive and difficult to manufacture. It can then be used in automobiles designed as electric vehicles. Compared with the cost of producing a conventional automobile, this results in significantly higher production costs; a technology that is certainly not environmentally friendly due to the techniques and raw materials used during production; intensive use of rare-earth elements; and the risk that the batteries and accumulators used to store electricity will eventually turn the world into a battery-waste dump.

In Brief:

HYDROGEN ENERGY has not achieved the position it deserves due to factors such as production difficulties, high production costs, storage and transportation problems, incompatibility with existing commercially available combi boilers and vehicle engines, inadequate technical infrastructure, insufficient technological development, safety risks, inefficient processes that are copies of one another and inadequate solutions.

AT HOWTEK, TO ENABLE HYDROGEN TO ACHIEVE THE POSITION IT DESERVES

Our Objectives, in Order, Are:

To manufacture hydrogen processes that are smaller than comparable systems, generate no waste, are clean and economical, have low operating and maintenance costs, can produce gas from water sources at high capacities and can recoup their investment costs in less than one year.
To eliminate the storage, implementation, usage and safety risks associated with hydrogen gas in its existing high-risk form by increasing its calorific value through carbon fermentation.
To produce high-efficiency, low-carbon-emission hydrocarbon gases from hydrogen with different combustion properties and with flammability, combustibility, storage and safety characteristics comparable to NATURAL GAS, LPG, LNG, KEROSENE, BUTANE, METHANE, ETHANE and PROPANE.
To process hydrogen with carbon, coal, plastic waste and plant waste through thermal cracking processes to obtain liquid fuels such as bitumen, fuel oil, diesel, petrol, gas oil and kerosene, as well as primary plastic-derived raw materials.
To increase the calorific value of low-grade coal from levels such as 1,000–2,000 kcal to 5,000–6,000 kcal through fermentation with hydrogen.
To increase the gas-production volumes and capacities of low-efficiency biogas/biomass power plants.
To make simple modifications to units used for heat generation—such as combi boilers, burners, boilers, steam generators, combined-cycle plants and turbines—so that they can operate using hydrocarbon gases.
To enable facilities requiring high thermal power—such as mineral-smelting facilities, rolling mills, foundries and mineral-beneficiation processes that require high temperatures in degrees Celsius—to operate using hydrocarbon and hydrogen gases. This includes removing oxygen from oxides to purify elemental minerals, such as obtaining boron carbide and elemental boron from boron oxide, pure silicon from SiO₂/silicon oxide, and anode/cathode copper from copper oxide or copper scrap, thereby achieving lower costs and higher production capacities.
To use hydrocarbon gases and synthetic liquid hydrocarbon fuels in land, marine and aerial vehicles through simple modifications.
To generate electrical energy in power plants using hydrocarbon gases as fuel.
To inject hydrocarbon gases into natural-gas pipelines to meet the thermal-energy requirements of residential and industrial facilities.

IN OUR HYDROGEN PROCESSES

COMPARED WITH CONVENTIONAL SYSTEMS, OUR HYDROGEN PROCESSES ARE INTENDED TO:

Provide product output ranging from low gas volumes to significantly higher gas volumes instantaneously according to demand, without requiring storage.
Produce hydrogen using water of utility-water or drinking-water quality without requiring purified water.
Provide a significantly longer anode/cathode service life than comparable systems.
Produce hydrogen/oxygen in liquid or gaseous form at high capacities within extremely compact systems.
Produce hydrogen gas with 99.9% purity and oxygen gas with 99.9% purity, either separately or in the form of HHO, as required.
Require only small quantities of electrolyte salts for gas production.
Consume very little electrical energy during electrolysis.
Be manufactured in any required size and capacity.
Be added to natural-gas pipelines to improve the quality and calorific value of natural gas while reducing natural-gas consumption.
Produce hydrocarbon gases such as kerosene, AVGAS, petrol, diesel and natural gas.
Increase the calorific value of low-grade coal.
Produce gas at extremely high capacities.
Provide economical consumable and maintenance costs.
Provide low investment and operating costs.

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