Mapping Green Hydrogen Research in North Africa: A Bibliometric Approach for Strategic Foresight

This bibliometric analysis aims to map the evolution, disciplinary structure, and collaboration dynamics of green hydrogen (GH) research in North Africa from 2019 to 2025. Drawing on a corpus of ~39,000 global publications, indexed in Scopus and analysed through SciVal, we isolate and examine the contributions of Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Egypt leads the region with 842 publications and a field-weighted citation impact of 2.42, followed by Morocco (232 Pubs., FWCI 2.30) and Algeria (184 Pubs., FWCI 1.65). Notably, Tunisia exhibits the highest growth factor (41 times since 2019), while Libya remains marginal with only 18 publications in the GH field. The region is well represented in Energy and Environmental fields but is underrepresented in trendy areas such as Materials and Chemical Engineering, highlighting critical gaps in consistency, sophistication, and technical infrastructure. While international collaboration exceeds 69% for most countries, it rarely translates into a high impact compared to the global average. Conversely, the limited industrial collaboration shows the highest citation impact (e.g., Tunisia: 68 citations/publications). A thematic analysis reveals shared strengths in electrolytic hydrogen production and renewable energy integration, with Egypt showing diversification into microalgae and nanocomposites and Morocco excelling in techno-economic assessments and ammonia-based systems. By revealing patterns in research quality, collaboration, and thematic positioning, this study offers evidence-based insights to inform national science strategies, enhance regional cooperation, and position North Africa more strategically in the emerging global green hydrogen economy.