Advancements and challenges in green hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and utilization for climate-resilient energy systems

Abstract

Consuming large quantities of harmful fossil fuels is leading to significant disturbances in the ecosystem’s health, increasing global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions per capita of approximately 8.3% between 1990 and 2022. Increasing temperatures, frequent natural disasters, and rising sea levels are among the consequences of climate change that threaten Earth’s sustainability. In this context, green hydrogen has been proven to be a sustainable, clean, and environmentally friendly solution to such challenges. Hydrogen can play a vital role in the storage, transportation, or provision of alternative energy. However, it contributes only 2% of global hydrogen production, whereas fossil fuels account for over 96%. This paper highlights the potential and crucial need to integrate green hydrogen into the current and future energy infrastructure, ensuring a smooth transition towards climate-resilient and environmentally safe systems. It also analyzes the components of a hydrogen-based economy and infrastructure, including green hydrogen production, storage, transportation, and utilization. Solar-powered systems, biomass gasification, wind or hybrid systems, and geothermal methods are examined and shown to improve production efficiency by 64% and reduce GHG emissions by 94%. Green hydrogen production methods, including the work presented, aim to identify the key advantages, challenges, limitations, and opportunities that hydrogen can bring to the global economy, as well as the potential of green hydrogen to provide a clean earth for future generations. This review highlights recent advancements in green hydrogen production and utilization technologies and identifies gaps that require attention from research, industry, society, and government. The work presented in this review is based on an analysis of over 140 scholarly publications spanning 2010 to 2025, highlighting current developments in the adoption of the hydrogen economy.

Keywords: Climate change, Decarbonization, Electrolysis, Green hydrogen, Hydrogen economy, Hydrogen infrastructure, Hydrogen production, Renewable energy systems, Sustainability