Integrated Approaches to Sustainable Hydrogen Production and Storage

Dear Colleagues,

In response to global climate change and energy security challenges, the transition to a low-carbon energy system is imperative. Hydrogen energy, particularly sustainable hydrogen derived from renewable resources, is recognized as a crucial vector for achieving deep decarbonization, especially in hard-to-abate sectors such as industry, transportation, and energy storage. However, the large-scale deployment of hydrogen energy faces hurdles in production, storage, transportation, and cost. Among these, safe, efficient, and economical hydrogen storage technology is a critical nexus connecting hydrogen production to end-use applications. This Special Issue aims at collating the latest research advances in frontier technologies for sustainable hydrogen production (e.g., water electrolysis powered by renewables) and innovative hydrogen storage solutions (including high-pressure gaseous storage, cryogenic liquid storage, metal hydride storage, porous material adsorption storage, and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs)). The focus will be on the development of hydrogen storage materials, system integration and optimization, energy efficiency analysis, techno-economic assessments, and life-cycle environmental impacts, thereby contributing to the maturation of the hydrogen value chain and accelerating the realization of a hydrogen economy.

The submission topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Key technologies of chemical sustainable hydrogen production, including the preparation of hydrogen production equipment from electrolytic water and pyrolysis water of renewable energy (wind, light, heat, etc.), the optimization of hydrogen production performance, and the integration of multi energy Internet.
• Key technologies for sustainable hydrogen production in biology, including renewable biomass-based hydrogen production technology and colony-based hydrogen production technology.
• High-pressure gaseous hydrogen storage technology, including technologies to increase hydrogen storage density, lightweight and low-cost hydrogen storage containers, rapid hydrogen charging and discharging and thermal management, materials and hydrogen embrittlement of high-pressure hydrogen storage containers, and risk assessment of high-pressure gaseous hydrogen leakage.
• Low-temperature liquid hydrogen storage technology, including high-performance vacuum insulation materials, multi-layer insulation structures, new and efficient low-energy liquefaction processes, and evaporation gas recovery and management.
• Solid-state hydrogen storage technology, including the development of high-performance hydrogen storage materials (such as MOFs, carbon nanomaterials, and porous polymers), chemical hydride materials and performance modification, coordination hydrides (such as aluminum hydrides and borohydrides), and the integration and thermal management of solid-state hydrogen storage systems.
• New and composite hydrogen storage technologies, including large-scale underground hydrogen storage and composite hydrogen storage technologies.
• Complex sustainability issues in hydrogen energy and storage, including ethical concerns of biohydrogen production technology, the impact of large-scale hydrogen leakage into the atmosphere on climate change, and economic cost competition issues under different hydrogen production and storage technologies.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Zuoyu Sun
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainable hydrogen production
• hydrogen storage technology
• low-carbon energy system
• water electrolysis
• high-pressure gaseous hydrogen storage
• solid-state hydrogen storage
• techno-economic assessment