China, People’s Republic

The production of green hydrogen requires renewable electricity and a supply of sustainable water. Due to global water scarcity using seawater to produce green hydrogen is particularly important in areas where freshwater resources are scarce. This study establishes a system model to simulate and optimize the integrated technology of seawater desalination by membrane distillation and hydrogen production by alkaline water electrolysis. Technical economics is also performed to evaluate the key factors affecting the economic benefits of the coupling system. The results show that an increase in electrolyzer power and energy efficiency will reduce the amount of pure water. An increase in the heat transfer efficiency of the membrane distillation can cause the breaking of water consumption and production equilibrium requiring a higher electrolyzer power to consume the water produced by membrane distillation. The levelized costs of pure water and hydrogen are US$1.28 per tonne and $1.37/kg H2 respectively. The most important factors affecting the production costs of pure water and hydrogen are electrolyzer power and energy efficiency. When the price of hydrogen rises the project’s revenue increases significantly. The integrated system offers excellent energy efficiency compared to conventional desalination and hydrogen production processes and advantages in terms of environmental protection and resource conservation.

Global climate change caused by geological processes is one of the main causes of the 5 global mass extinctions in geological history. Human industrialization activities have caused serious damage to the ecosystem the greenhouse effect of atmospheric CO2 has intensified and the living environment is facing threats and challenges. Carbon neutrality is the active action and common goal of mankind in the face of the climate change crisis therefore probing into its theoretical and technological connotation scientific and technological innovation system has far-reaching significance and broad prospects. Studies indicate that (1) Carbon neutrality reflects the theoretical connotations of “energy science” and “carbon neutrality science” including technical connotations of carbon emission reduction zero carbon emission negative carbon emission and carbon trading. (2) Carbon neutrality spawns new industries such as carbon industry centering on CO2 capture utilization and storage (CCUS or CO2 capture and storage CCS) and hydrogen industry centering on green hydrogen. “Gray carbon” and “black carbon” are the two application attributes of CO2. “Carbonþ” “Carbon” and “Carbon¼” are three carbon-neutral products and technologies. (3) China faces three major challenges in achieving the goal of carbon neutrality: first energy transition is large in scale and the cycle is short; Second there are many problems in the process of energy transition such as security uncertainties economic utilization and unpredictable disruptive technologies; Third after transition we may face new key techno-logical “bottlenecks” and “broken chain” of key mineral resources. (4) Based on current knowledge to predict the top 10 disruptive technologies and industries in the energy field: underground coal gasification in-situ conversion process of medium and low-mature shale oil CCUS/CCS hydrogen energy and fuel cells bio-photovoltaic power generation space-based solar power generation optical storage smart micro-grid super energy storage controllable nuclear fusion wisdom energy Internet. Five strategic projects will be implemented including energy conservation and efficiency improvement carbon reduction and sequestration scientific and technological innovation emergency reserve and policy support. (5) In the future different types of energy will have different orientations. Coal will play the role of ensuring the national energy strategy “reserve” and “guarantee the bottom line”. Petroleum will play the role of ensuring national energy security “urgent need” and the “cornerstone” of raw materials in people's livelihood. Natural gas will play the role in ensuring national energy “safety” and “best partner” of new energy. New energy will play the role in ensuring the “replacement” and “main force” of the national energy strategy. (6) Carbon neutrality is a major practice of the green industrial revolution carbon reduction energy revolution and ecological technology revolution which will bring new and profound changes to human society the environment and the economy. (7) Carbon neutrality needs to follow the four principles of “disruptive breakthroughs in technology guarantee of energy security realization of economic feasibility and controllable social stability”. We should rely on technological innovation and management changes to ensure the realization of national energy “independence” and carbon neutrality goal and make China's contribution to the construction of a livable earth green development and ecological civilization.

With the gradual maturity of wind power technology China’s wind power generation has grown rapidly over the recent years. However due to the on-site inconsumable electricity the phenomenon of large-scale “wind curtailment” occurs in some areas. In this paper a novel hybrid hydrogen/electricity refueling station is built near a wind farm and a part of the surplus wind power is used to charge electric trucks and the other part of the surplus power is used to produce “green hydrogen”. According to real-time load changes different amounts of liquid hydrogen and gas hydrogen can be properly coordinated to provide timely energy supply for hydrogen trucks. For a 400 MW wind farm in the western Inner Mongolia China the feasibility of the proposed system has been carried out based on the sensitivity and reliability analysis the static and dynamic economic modeling with an entire life cycle analysis. Compared to the conventional technology the initial investment of the proposed scheme (700.07 M$) decreases by 13.97% and the dynamic payback period (10.93 years) decreases by 25.87%. During the life cycle of the proposed system the accumulative NPV reaches 184.63 M$ which increases by 3.14 times compared to the case by conventional wind technology.

Hydrogen energy is regarded as an ideal solution for addressing climate change issues and an indispensable part of future integrated energy systems. The most environmentally friendly hydrogen production method remains water electrolysis where the electrolyzer constructs the physical interface between electrical energy and hydrogen energy. However few articles have reviewed the electrolyzer from the perspective of power supply topology and control. This review is the first to discuss the positioning of the electrolyzer power supply in the future integrated energy system. The electrolyzer is reviewed from the perspective of the electrolysis method the market and the electrical interface modelling reflecting the requirement of the electrolyzer for power supply. Various electrolyzer power supply topologies are studied and reviewed. Although the most widely used topology in the current hydrogen production industry is still single-stage AC/DC the interleaved parallel LLC topology constructed by wideband gap power semiconductors and controlled by the zero-voltage switching algorithm has broad application prospects because of its advantages of high power density high efficiency fault tolerance and low current ripple. Taking into account the development trend of the EL power supply a hierarchical control framework is proposed as it can manage the operation performance of the power supply itself the electrolyzer the hydrogen energy domain and the entire integrated energy system.

Renewable hydrogen production from biomass thermochemical conversion is an emerging technology to reduce fossil fuel consumptions and carbon emissions. Biomass-derived hydrogen can be produced by pyrolysis gasification alkaline thermal treatment etc. However the removal of impurities from biomass thermochemical conversion products to improve hydrogen purity is currently technical bottleneck. It is important to assess and investigate the types and properties of impurities the difficulty of separation and the impact on downstream utilization of hydrogen in the biomass-derived hydrogen production process. The key objectives of this comprehensive review are: (1) to reveal the current status and necessity of developing biomass-derived hydrogen production; (2) to evaluate the types devices and impurities distribution of biomass thermochemical conversion; (3) to explore the formation pathways and removal technologies of typical impurities of tar CO2 sulfides and nitrides in hydrogen production process; and (4) to propose future insights on the separation technologies of typical impurities to promote the gradual substitution of biomass-derived hydrogen for fossil-derived energy.

The use of hydrogen-blended natural gas presents an efficacious pathway toward the rapid large-scale implementation of hydrogen energy with pipeline transportation being the principal method of conveyance. However pipeline materials are susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement in high-pressure hydrogen environments. Natural gas contains various impurity gases that can either exacerbate or mitigate sensitivity to hydrogen embrittlement. In this study we analyzed the mechanisms through which multiple impurity gases could affect the hydrogen embrittlement behavior of pipeline steel. We examined the effects of O2 and CO2 on the hydrogen embrittlement behavior of L360 pipeline steel through a series of fatigue crack growth tests conducted in various environments. We analyzed the fracture surfaces and assessed the fracture mechanisms involved. We discovered that CO2 promoted the hydrogen embrittlement of the material whereas O2 inhibited it. O2 mitigated the enhancing effect of CO2 when both gases were mixed with hydrogen. As the fatigue crack growth rate increased the influence of impurity gases on the hydrogen embrittlement of the material diminished.

Integrated hydrogen energy systems (IHESs) have attracted extensive attention in miti-gating climate problems. As a kind of large-scale hydrogen storage device undergroundhydrogen storage (UHS) can be introduced into IHES to balance the seasonal energy mis-match while bringing challenges to optimal operation of IHES due to the complex geolog-ical structure and uncertain hydrodynamics. To address this problem a deep deterministicpolicy gradient (DDPG)-based optimal scheduling method for underground space basedIHES is proposed. The energy management problem is formulated as a Markov decisionprocess to characterize the interaction between environmental states and policy. Based onDDPG theory the actor-critic structure is applied to approximate deterministic policy andactor-value function. Through policy iteration and actor-critic network training the oper-ation of UHS and other energy conversion devices can be adaptively optimised which isdriven by real-time response data instead of accurate system models. Finally the effective-ness of the proposed optimal scheduling method and the benefits of underground spaceare verified through time-domain simulations.

Hydrogen production from renewable energy sources is a crucial pathway to achieving the carbon peak target and realizing the vision of carbon neutrality. The hydrogen production from offshore superconducting wind power (HPOSWP) integrated systems as an innovative technology in the renewable energy hydrogen production field holds significant market potential and promising development prospects. This integrated technology based on research into high-temperature superconducting generator (HTSG) characteristics and electrolytic water hydrogen production (EWHP) technology converts offshore wind energy (OWE) into hydrogen energy locally through electrolysis with hydrogen storage being shipped and controlled liquid hydrogen (LH2) circulation ensuring a stable low-temperature environment for the HTSGs’ refrigeration system. However due to the significant instability and intermittency of offshore wind power (OWP) this HPOSWP system can greatly affect the dynamic adaptability of the EWHP system resulting in impure hydrogen production and compromising the safety of the LH2 cooling system and reduce the fitness of the integrated system for wind electricity–hydrogen heat multi-field coupling. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamental structure and characteristics of this integrated technology and further identifies the key challenges in its application including the dynamic adaptability of electrolytic water hydrogen production technology as well as the need for large-capacity long-duration storage solutions. Additionally this paper explores the future technological direction of this integrated system highlighting the need to overcome the limitations of electrical energy adaptation within the system improve product purity and achieve large-scale applications.

In this study a 3D model is developed to simulate multi-hole leakage scenarios in buried pipelines transporting hydrogen-blended natural gas (HBNG). By introducing three parameters—the First Dangerous Time (FDT) Ground Dangerous Range (GDR) and Farthest Dangerous Distance (FDD)—to characterize the diffusion hazard of the gas mixture this study further analyzes the effects of the number of leakage holes hole spacing hydrogen blending ratio (HBR) and soil porosity on the diffusion hazard of the gas mixture during leakage. Results indicate that gas leakage exhibits three distinct phases: initial independent diffusion followed by an intersecting accelerated diffusion stage and culminating in a unified-source diffusion. Hydrogen exhibits the first two phases whereas methane undergoes all three and dominates the GDR. Concentration gradients for multi-hole leakage demonstrate similarities to single-hole scenarios but multi-hole leakage presents significantly higher hazards. When the inter-hole spacing is small diffusion characteristics converge with those of single-hole leakage. Increasing HBR only affects the gas concentration distribution near the leakage hole with minimal impact on the overall ground danger evolution. Conversely variations in soil porosity substantially impact leakage-induced hazards. The outcomes of this study will support leakage monitoring and emergency management of HBNG pipelines.

Direct seawater electrolysis (DSE) has emerged as a compelling route to sustainable hydrogen production leveraging the vast global reserves of seawater. However the inherently complex composition of seawater—laden with halide ions multivalent cations (Mg2+ Ca2+) and organic/biological impurities—presents formidable challenges in maintaining both selectivity and durability. Chief among these obstacles is mitigating chloride corrosion and suppressing chlorine evolution reaction (ClER) at the anode while also preventing the precipitation of magnesium and calcium hydroxides at the cathode. This review consolidates recent advances in material engineering and cell design strategies aimed at controlling undesired side reactions enhancing electrode stability and maximizing energy efficiency in DSE. We first outline the fundamental thermodynamic and kinetic hurdles introduced by Cl⁻ and other impurities. This discussion highlights how these factors accelerate catalyst degradation and drive suboptimal reaction pathways. We then delve into innovative approaches to improve selectivity and durability of DSE—such as engineering protective barrier layers tuning electrolyte interfaces developing corrosion-resistant materials and techniques to minimize Mg/Ca-related precipitations. Finally we explore emerging reactor configurations including asymmetric and membrane-free electrolyzers which address some barriers for DSE commercialization. Collectively these insights provide a framework for designing next-generation DSE systems which can achieve large-scale cost-effective and environmentally benign hydrogen production.