Turkey's Green Economy Initiative: An Experimental Evaluation of Hydrogen Energy

Abstract

Green economy is a concept that aims to achieve sustainable economic growth without harming the environment. Reducing carbon footprint is an important tool for the green economy. The contribution of reducing carbon footprint to the green economy is to measure the impact of economic activities on the environment and guide the development of green economy practices. Through green economy practices, carbon footprint can be reduced, environmentally friendly production and consumption habits can be promoted, and natural resources can be used more efficiently. Turkey is in a moderate position in terms of carbon footprint worldwide. As of 2019, Turkey's carbon footprint was calculated as 370 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent. The energy sector, industrial activities, transportation and agriculture sectors are among the largest sources of carbon footprint in Turkey. In this study, the evaluation of hydrogen gas production for reducing carbon footprint during Turkey's transition to the green economy is discussed. The production and evaluation of the cathode electrode used in hydrogen gas production with the alkaline electrolysis system were conducted. For this purpose, a novel, cheap and accessible cathode material containing transition metal was used for the first time in the literature, which was produced by a triple coating of nickel (Ni), iron (Fe), and molybdenum (Mo) on a nickel foam electrode surface at different potentials (2.1 V - 3 V) and different times (5-30 minutes) with two electrode techniques to produce hydrogen gas. According to the results, the amount of hydrogen gas produced per unit surface area (m2) of the electrode during a 30-minute period was approximately 516 L, and the energy value determined by the Lower Heating Value (LHV) was 5533.2 kJ/kg H2.