Sustainable Hydrogen Production and Utilization

Currently, carbon-based hydrogen production (gray hydrogen) is still the most widely used approach in industry for hydrogen generation. Although carbon-free (green hydrogen) or carbon-neutral (blue hydrogen) hydrogen production technology faces challenges, it will eventually replace traditional industrial hydrogen production technology. Sustainable hydrogen production by using clean and renewable energies such as solar energy, wind energy can not only reduce the cost for the green hydrogen generation, but also store intermittent, low-density renewable energy as continuous, high-density chemical energy, which has broad application prospects. Meanwhile, the efficient development and utilization of hydrogen fuel cells will make great contributions to the sustainable development of human life and civilization. Fine design of functional materials as catalysts for hydrogen production and utilization is highly demanded to contribute to the process of carbon neutrality and energy transition.

With many future socio-economic scenarios placing hydrogen as a mainstream energy source, sustainable hydrogen production and utilization is attracting intensive attention from both scientific and industrial research. In this respective, this Research Topic aims to collect the latest technological advancements in the hydrogen production and utilization to provide cost-effective CO2 mitigation and low-cost energy. With the collection, it will help the readers to have the clear version in the latest development in hydrogen energy and the most challenging project for the practical application in both sustainable hydrogen production and efficient hydrogen utilization.

This research topic covers, but is not limited to the following concepts:

• Sustainable hydrogen production from water splitting by using technologies such as photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, solar-assisted thermochemical hydrogen production, piezoelectric photocatalysis, etc.;

• Hydrogen production from biomass by using the technologies of photorefining, traditional pyrolysis. Selective conversion of biomass or biomass derives to produce high-value chemicals together with hydrogen production is highly recommended;

• Hydrogen production from hydrogen-containing molecules such as ammonia, methane, methanol and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs);

• Hydrogen oxidation reaction and hydrogen fuel cell;

• Functional catalyst design, fabrication and reaction system optimization for sustainable hydrogen production and utilization;

• Technoeconomic and life-cycle analysis of the sustainable hydrogen production and utilization;

Analysis and evaluation of hydrogen-based economics.

Keywords: Hydrogen production, Photo(electro)catalysis, hydrogen oxidation reaction, renewable energy, catalytic material, economic analysis

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