Solar-Driven Hydrogen Production: Recent Advances, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

TLDR

Solar hydrogen production offers a promising route to harness solar energy and mitigate climate change from fossil fuel combustion, with photocatalytic, photoelectrochemical, photovoltaic–electrochemical, solar thermochemical, photothermal catalytic, and photobiological methods being the most studied. The review aims to comprehensively survey, compare, and evaluate solar hydrogen production technologies—assessing their efficiency, durability, economics, and sustainability—to determine commercial viability and outline future research challenges. The review summarizes recent achievements in solar hydrogen production, focusing on high solar‑to‑hydrogen conversion efficiencies, and compares technologies across efficiency, durability, economics, and sustainability metrics.

Abstract

Solar H2 production is considered as a potentially promising way to utilize solar energy and tackle climate change stemming from the combustion of fossil fuels. Photocatalytic, photoelectrochemical, photovoltaic–electrochemical, solar thermochemical, photothermal catalytic, and photobiological technologies are the most intensively studied routes for solar H2 production. In this Focus Review, we provide a comprehensive review of these technologies. After a brief introduction of the principles and mechanisms of these technologies, the recent achievements in solar H2 production are summarized, with a particular focus on the high solar-to-H2 (STH) conversion efficiency achieved by each route. We then comparatively analyze and evaluate these technologies based on the metrics of STH efficiency, durability, economic viability, and environmental sustainability, aiming to assess the commercial feasibility of these solar technologies compared with current industrial H2 production processes. Finally, the challenges and prospects of future research on solar H2 production technologies are presented.