Editorial preface of the special issue on “the 5th international conference on alternative fuels, energy & environment: Futures & challenges (ICAFEE 2021)” (virtual) 15th – 18th, October 2021, Erciyes University (ERÜ), Türkiye

Chemically possible hydrogen storage material of the most important and widely used metal hydride compound is sodium borohydride. A current research issue is the development of systems that allow regulated hydrogen generation employing appropriate catalysts for the creation of hydrogen gas from the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride (NaBH4). In this study, controlled hydrogen production from alkali solution of NaBH4 was aimed. On hydrogen generation rate (HGR), the effects of NaBH4 and alkaline solution concentrations, catalyst quantity, and temperature were examined. Considering the energy and exergy analysis, which have gained importance in the international arena in recent years, in this study, the exergy energy analysis of the environment in which the sodium borohydride solution is located was performed. The best one of the Ru-based catalysts synthesized in different atomic ratios was determined as 90:10 RuCr. The surface characterization of the obtained catalyst was carried out using scanning electron microscope (SEM-EDX) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). In the kinetic calculations, the activation energy was calculated as 35,024 kj/mol and the reaction ordered n was found to be 0,65. By applying exergy and energy analysis to the hydrogen production step, the energy and exergy efficiency of the system were found to be 24% and 7%, respectively.