Turkey has unveiled a new national Hydrogen Technology Strategy and Roadmap that contains new targets for green H2 production, a plan to introduce an incentive mechanism for the local production of equipment, and roles for blue and turquoise H2 and hydrogen blending into the natural-gas grid.

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The 22-page document sets two national targets — one on electrolyser installation and another on the cost of green H2 — and 13 specific policies, alongside roadmaps for hydrogen production, storage, distribution and usage.

The first target is for green H2 to cost $2.40/kg by 2035 and below $1.20/kg by 2053, the date by which the country plans to reach net-zero emissions.

And the second is to install 2GW of electrolysers by 2030 and 5GW by 2035, rising to 70GW in 2053.

The list of policies include:

  • The creation of an incentive mechanism to support the use of locally made components in the production and storage of green H2
  • Developing “national technologies”, which it describes as “electrolyser, fuel cell, etc”
  • Producing H2 and synthetic methane from lignite (brown coal) and organic waste
  • Promoting the use of green H2 in hard-to-abate sectors such as chemicals, steel, glass, ceramics and transportation
  • Blending hydrogen into the fossil gas grid — 5-20% until 2025, and then 20-100% between 2025 and 2040
  • Storing hydrogen in boron mines
  • Meeting all of Turkey’s hydrogen needs through domestic production and exporting green H2 or ammonia with the surplus

Both blue hydrogen, made from fossil fuel with carbon capture and storage, and turquoise hydrogen — produced in a process called pyrolysis — “will be supported”, the document states, but without explaining how.

The blue hydrogen will be produced from domestic resources, with a demonstration project due to take place in the 2030s, it adds.

Methane pyrolysis systems — in which natural gas is heated to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, resulting in the formation of solid carbon rather than CO2 — will be developed in Turkey, along with the development of value-added products made using the solid carbon.

Energy and natural resources minister Fatih Donmez told a briefing in Ankara yesterday: “We will feed our existing natural gas pipelines with hydrogen. We will produce hydrogen from renewable energy sources and coal. We will be in a position to export hydrogen to world markets. We will encourage the use of boron as a hydrogen storage and holder.

“Hydrogen will be among the energy sources of the future, as an energy carrier, and will accelerate the green transformation. It will be an important argument that will both reduce our energy imports and increase our competitiveness.”