Emerging Catalytic Strategies for Green Hydrogen Production and Storage in Sustainable Applications

Cutting emissions from transport and distributed chemical processes needs energy carriers that are low-carbon, engine-ready, and made with little water, energy, and material use. Green hydrogen made by electrolysis meets these needs. It works with proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) fuel cells, hydrogen-ready turbines, and reciprocating engines. Catalysis drives every step: hydrogen- and oxygen-evolution catalysts set efficiency and lifetime; purification catalysts protect downstream devices; and storage depends on selective hydrogenation and dehydrogenation, ammonia cracking, reforming of circular carriers, and improved metal or complex hydrides. Major gaps remain: lowering the levelized cost of hydrogen, keeping performance stable under changing loads, defining impurity limits and reliable clean-up, cutting nitrogen-oxides during hydrogen combustion, and scaling compression, storage, and reconversion with low energy loss while saving water and ensuring safety and reliability. Solving these issues will enable end-to-end, high-efficiency hydrogen pathways.

This Research Topic promotes catalytic solutions that cut cost, water use, and risk while improving reliability in green-hydrogen production and storage. We focus on three associated areas but not limited to:
• Electrolysis catalysis. Improve Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM)/alkaline/Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) stacks via earth-abundant Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER)/Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) catalysts, alkaline, and anion-exchange stacks with earth-abundant hydrogen- and oxygen-evolution catalysts, durable ionomers and membranes, and graded architectures that keep activity and conductivity under transient, high-pressure operation. Detect and limit dissolution, phase change, gas crossover, and ionomer oxidation.
• Fuel quality, safety, and clean-up. Set clear limits for moisture, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. Create compact catalytic dryers, getters, and scrubbers that protect engines and PEM stacks without large pressure drops, supported by inline analytics, leak detection, and materials compatible with long service life.
• Storage and reconversion catalysis. Deliver fast, selective liquid-organic-carrier cycles, low-temperature ammonia cracking, reforming of circular carriers, and doped or defect-engineered hydrides with lower activation barriers, combined with sound heat and mass management to reduce energy penalties.

We invite studies using closed-loop experiments and models and multi-scale optimization that join catalyst micro kinetics, controls, water pre-treatment, and balance-of-plant with techno-economic and life-cycle analyses and quantitative risk assessment. The aim is to minimize cost per kilogram of hydrogen, water use per kilogram, nitrogen-oxides per kilowatt-hour, and round-trip losses and deliver deployable, resilient designs.

We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and Perspectives on:

• Electrolyzer catalysis: Hydrogen- and oxygen-evolution catalysts, supports, membranes and ionomers, gas crossover, transient durability, and control-integrated operation.
• Water sourcing and treatment: Raw-water characterization; screening, ultrafiltration, softening, and antiscalants; reverse osmosis or nanofiltration; electrodeionization, ion exchange, ultraviolet or total-organic-carbon reduction, and degassing; microbial and biofilm control; continuous monitoring of conductivity, silica, organic carbon, and particulates; scale and corrosion management; blowdown minimization and reuse; brine recovery and valorization; materials compatibility; impacts on stack life; and water-footprint/cost trade-offs.
• Clean-up, safety, and monitoring: Clear fuel-quality and purity limits; designs and validates pressure-relief and vent systems; maps fire-and-gas detection and shutdown philosophy; defines hazardous-area classifications and ventilation/purging; selects materials compatible with hydrogen service; and implements continuous gas analytics, leak detection, and targeted clean-up (dryers, getters, removal of carbon monoxide, ammonia, sulfur, and halides) to ensure containment integrity and operational reliability.
• Storage catalysis: Selective liquid-organic-carrier hydrogenation/dehydrogenation; ruthenium-lean or nitride catalysts for low-temperature, rapid-start ammonia cracking; compact reforming of methanol, formate, and other carriers; and catalytically enhanced magnesium, lithium, and complex hydrides with high cycling durability and round-trip efficiency.
• Systems and tools: Process intensification with integrated heat and mass transfer; microchannel and reactive-separation systems; artificial-intelligence and machine-learning methods for discovery, control, and prognostics; techno-economic and life-cycle assessments (well to wheel); safety, risk, and reliability analyses; and policy-relevant benchmarks.

Submissions should report performance, durability, and cost/footprint and, where possible, include benchmarks against grey-hydrogen or fossil-fuel baselines.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Green Hydrogen, Catalysis and Electrocatalysts, Water Electrolysis, Hydrogen Storage Materials

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.