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Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and when used as a fuel, it produces only water as a byproduct. This makes hydrogen attractive for applications where direct electrification is challenging, such as aviation, shipping, heavy industry, and long-duration energy storage. However, hydrogen's environmental and economic benefits depend entirely on how it's produced.

The hydrogen industry uses color classifications to distinguish production methods. "Green hydrogen" is produced using clean electricity (typically through electrolysis), resulting in no carbon emissions from production. "Blue hydrogen" is made from natural gas with carbon capture to reduce emissions. "Gray hydrogen" comes from natural gas without carbon capture, which is currently the cheapest and most common method, accounting for most hydrogen production today. The challenge is making green hydrogen cost-competitive with gray hydrogen while scaling production to meet potential demand.

Hydrogen production is energy-intensive regardless of method, so production efficiency directly determines both cost and net energy benefit. RASEI research focuses primarily on improving the efficiency of clean hydrogen production methods, exploring fundamental science for making green hydrogen economically viable at scale.

Electrolysis: splitting water with electricity. Electrolysis uses electricity to split water (Hâ‚‚O) into hydrogen and oxygen. This is the primary pathway for green hydrogen production and the main focus of RASEI's hydrogen research.

RASEI's electrocatalysis research seeks to better understand the splitting of water, and develop design principles to make the process more efficient and affordable. Improving catalyst materials can reduce the electricity required per unit of hydrogen produced directly lowering production costs. Developing catalysts that don't rely on expensive platinum-group metals can reduce equipment costs. Understanding degradation mechanisms helps extend system lifetimes, reducing the amortized cost per kilogram of hydrogen produced.

While electrolysis using clean electricity is the most direct path to green hydrogen, other production approaches are being explored, including Photoelectrochemical production uses specialized materials that directly convert sunlight and water into hydrogen, combining solar energy capture and electrolysis in a single device. This approach could potentially be simpler and cheaper than separate solar panels plus electrolyzers, but current efficiencies are low and materials stability is a major challenge. Biological hydrogen production leverages microorganisms that naturally produce hydrogen through fermentation or photosynthesis. While intriguing, biological approaches currently produce hydrogen too slowly and at too small a scale for major energy applications.

Materials research is critical across all hydrogen production methods. RASEI researchers work on developing electrode materials that are more active (requiring less voltage), more stable (lasting longer before degradation), and made from abundant elements rather than expensive rare materials. Even small improvements in catalyst activity can significantly reduce the electricity cost of hydrogen production which is currently the dominant cost for electrolytic hydrogen.

The economic viability of these applications depends critically on production costs. Currently, green hydrogen costs 2-4 times more than gray hydrogen in most locations. Closing this cost gap through improved production efficiency, lower-cost equipment, and cheaper clean electricity is essential in order for hydrogen to play a major role in the energy transition.

Hydrogen is not a universal solution, direct electrification is more efficient for most applications. However, for sectors where electricity alone is insufficient, hydrogen provides a pathway to clean energy using abundant feedstocks (water) and producing only water when combusted. Making this pathway economically viable at scale requires continued advances in production efficiency, and this is where RASEI research is concentrated.