Unlocking Efficient Hydrogen Production for Clean Energy

The continuous growth of the world’s population and economy has led to a significant rise in energy demand, about 80% of which is met by fossil fuels. These resources are not only dwindling dramatically but are also responsible for a considerable increase in greenhouse gases (GHG) in the environment.

As a result, there is now a growing focus on renewable sources of energy, such as the sun, wind, water, organic matter, and the Earth’s heat.

Derived from natural resources that replenish themselves, renewable energy sources are important for clean and sustainable energy systems. However, they face numerous challenges, including irregular availability, high initial costs, geographic limitations, and extensive space requirements. 

This is where hydrogen comes into the picture. Global demand for hydrogen climbed to 97 million tonnes (Mt) in 2023, up 2.5% from the previous year. 

The Role of Hydrogen in the Clean Energy Transition

The lightest element in the universe, hydrogen, has emerged as a promising solution for achieving a more sustainable energy ecosystem due to its flexibility and its ability to store a significant amount of energy relative to its weight.

It is not a primary source like the sun but a secondary one, since it must be produced from other raw materials such as water, natural gas, or biomass.

When produced using fossil fuels such as natural gas (which is currently the most common method), hydrogen is not clean energy, as it accounts for significant annual CO2 emissions.

However, when used in a fuel cell, hydrogen produces only water vapor as a byproduct, making it a clean fuel.

As a versatile energy carrier, hydrogen can help address several critical energy challenges. It can support the integration of renewables into the electricity system by storing energy for weeks or even months.

Low-emissions hydrogen produced with nuclear or renewable energy, or fossil fuels using carbon capture, meanwhile, can help decarbonise a range of sectors. Heavy industry and long-distance transport, where reducing emissions is particularly challenging, can greatly benefit from it. This hydrogen production, however, still plays a marginal role, at under 1% in 2023.

Hydrogen can actually be derived from different technologies. One of the most efficient methods for producing sustainable hydrogen is through water electrolysis. In this energy-intensive electrolysis, electricity is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The technology is well developed and available commercially, though its estimated energy efficiency is around 52%.

Another approach is plasmolysis, which has shown the energy yield on par with electrolysis, with the added advantage of reduced power consumption, lower principal cost, and smaller equipment size. Recent advancements in microfluidics and micro-plasmas have made hydrogen production by water vapor plasmolysis lucrative in terms of energy efficiency.

Other ways to derive hydrogen for electricity include photocatalysis, biohydrogen, and thermochemical processes.

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While hydrogen technology is promising, its widespread use still faces difficulties in terms of production cost, efficiency, and overall environmental sustainability. Given the need for cleaner energy sources, however, researchers worldwide are constantly looking into solving these problems with new materials and better tech.

Catalyst Innovations Driving Hydrogen Efficiency

As hydrogen technologies progress from concept to commercialization, one of the key challenges is with the materials that make these systems efficient and scalable. To address this, scientists are working on various approaches.

For instance, a study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters, published¹ this month in Nature, introduced a tiny iron catalyst as an alternative to platinum in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), with the potential to transform the future of clean energy.

PEMFCs are clean energy devices that produce electricity from hydrogen and oxygen, with water being the only byproduct. But they depend heavily on scarce and expensive platinum as a catalyst. So, to help with their widespread adoption, the researchers have developed a high-performance iron-based catalyst for these fuel cells.

With its clever “inner activation, outer protection” design, the new catalyst can achieve excellent performance while reducing harmful byproducts.

While Fe/N–C catalysts are among the most promising alternatives to the platinum group metal catalysts, their activity and durability can’t meet the performance criteria. So, the team designed and developed a new type of Fe/N–C catalyst made of numerous nanoprotrusions distributed on 2D carbon layers with single Fe-atom sites embedded within the inner curved surface of nanoprotrusions. 

As a result, the new catalyst was able to deliver “one of the best-performing” platinum group metal-free PEMFC performances, having an 86% activity retention even after over 300 hours of continuous operation.

Another key technology to produce hydrogen in a climate-neutral manner through water electrolysis is Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis (PEM-WE).

In order to accelerate the desired reaction, electrodes are coated with special electrocatalysts. For the anode, iridium-based catalysts are commonly used, especially for the acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER).

OER is the oxygen-producing step of the water-splitting process that generates clean hydrogen energy, but it remains challenging and inefficient. This reaction is most effective when iridium-based catalysts are employed.

Discovered in 1803, Iridium does not occur in pure form in nature but is commercially recovered as a byproduct of platinum, palladium, nickel, or copper production. 

Iridium is a dense, hard metal that remains unaffected by air, water, and acids. Because of these properties, it is used in spark plugs, scientific equipment, catalysts, conductive inks for electronics, and cancer treatment.

The metal is rarely used in pure form due to difficulties in preparation and fabrication; rather, it is used in the form of platinum alloys.

Iridium (Ir), however, is a high-value metal and one of the rarest naturally occurring elements in Earth’s crust. Iridium-containing ores are found in South Africa, the United States (Alaska), Brazil, Russia, Myanmar, and Australia.

Its scarcity, combined with its high demand from industries like electronics, makes it very expensive. Iridium is actually more valuable than gold, costing almost $5,000 per ounce.

So, it makes sense that scientists are constantly looking for new metals to replace Iridium in order to help with the large-scale adoption of PEMWEs. The discovery of non-Ir alternatives, however, is not straightforward and remains slow due to the vast design space involved.

A few months ago, a study² from the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR) at Tohoku University detailed a new porous crystal catalyst as an efficient and durable solution for clean hydrogen production through water electrolysis. 

The material in this study is mesoporous single-crystalline Co3O4 doped with atomically dispersed Iridium for the acidic OER.

The mesoporous spinel structure plays a key role, as it allows for high Ir loading (13.8 wt%) without the formation of large iridium clusters. In addition to providing space for Ir loading, the architecture also aids in creating a stable environment.

The catalyst maintained its performance for more than 100 hours with just 248 mV of overpotential (η₁₀).

In another recent study, researchers have created a “megalibrary” to explore the catalytic activity of millions of distinct nanostructures composed of a few key metals, helping search for alternatives to Ir catalysts for OER at scale and speed.

Click here to learn how non-noble catalysts pave the way for affordable hydrogen.

Rapid Catalyst Discovery with Nanotechnology

The latest study³ has actually found a new catalyst for hydrogen fuel production that is both cost and energy-efficient.

Published this month in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), the discovery of the catalyst was made using a new nanoparticle megalibrary, and it matches or surpasses Iridium’s performance in hydrogen fuel production, at a fraction of the cost.

For a long time now, researchers have been looking for alternatives to Iridium. But what took decades was now discovered within a single afternoon using the powerful new tool developed by scientists from Northwestern University.

This newly invented tool is called a megalibrary, which is the world’s first nanomaterial “data factory.” Each of these libraries contains millions of distinct nanoparticles on one tiny chip.

The technology was then used, in collaboration with researchers from the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), to find commercially relevant catalysts for hydrogen production. The material was subsequently scaled up, and shown to work within a device. All of this was done in record time.

To discover new catalysts, the researchers used four inexpensive, abundant metals, which are all known for their catalytic performance. These metals are:

1. Cobalt (CO)
2. Chromium (CR)
3. Manganese (MN)
4. Ruthenium (Ru)

The megalibrary was then used to screen vast combinations of these metals rapidly to find a novel material whose performance can match that of Iridium.

The team did find one such new material that was comparable to commercial Iridium-based materials in lab performance. In some cases, performance even exceeded them at a fraction of the cost.

This discovery could potentially make green hydrogen affordable.

Moreover, the novel material demonstrates the effectiveness of the megalibrary approach, which may alter the way researchers discover new materials for various applications.

According to senior study author Chad A. Mirkin, who is the primary inventor of the megalibrary platform and the one who actually introduced the megalibraries about a decade ago in 2016:

“We’ve unleashed arguably the world’s most powerful synthesis tool, which allows one to search the enormous number of combinations available to chemists and materials scientists to find materials that matter.”

In the megalibrary project, the team “channeled that capability toward a major problem facing the energy sector.” The problem, as nanotechnology pioneer Mirkin noted, was:

“How do we find a material that is as good as Iridium but is more plentiful, more available, and a lot cheaper? This new tool enabled us to find a promising alternative and to find it rapidly.”

Mirkin is a Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering, and materials science and engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering. 

Green hydrogen is a critical need of the world, but it is constrained by its reliance on one of the rarest materials to function.

“There’s not enough iridium in the world to meet all of our projected needs.”

– Ted Sargent, the Professor of Chemistry at Weinberg and professor of electrical and computer engineering at McCormick

Sargent and Mirkin worked on the project together.

“As we think about splitting water to generate alternative forms of energy, there’s not enough iridium from a purely supply standpoint.”

– Sargent

Discovering new candidates to replace this metal made for the perfect application for the new tool, which can revolutionize the slow and daunting traditional process of materials discovery. Unlike the traditional trial-and-error method, the new megalibraries enable the swift identification of optimal compositions.

Each megalibrary has been created with a group of hundreds of thousands of tiny, pyramid-shaped tips to print individual ‘dots’ onto a surface. Every dot here features a carefully designed mix of metal salts, which, when heated, are reduced to form single, unique nanoparticles, each with a precise size and composition.

According to Mirkin:

“You can think of each tip as a tiny person in a tiny lab. Instead of having one tiny person make one structure at a time, you have millions of people. So, you basically have a full army of researchers deployed on a chip.”

In total, the chip had 156 million particles, each formed from different combinations of Co, Cr, Mn, and Ru. A robot scanner then analyzed just how well they can perform an Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER). 

This ability to screen particles for their ultimate performance makes for a major innovation.

“For the first time, we were not only able to rapidly screen catalysts, but we saw the best ones performing well in a scaled-up setting.”

– Study co-author Joseph Montoya, a senior staff research scientist at TRI

Based on the assessment, the researchers selected 40 best-performing candidates, ranging from low to high activity, for further testing in the laboratory. The RuCoMnCr oxides were scaled to milligram levels before being studied for their catalytic performance.

One composition stood out in the end. This precise combination of all four metals was: Ru52Co33Mn9Cr6 oxide.

So, the team was able to get a multi-metal catalyst, which is actually known to be more active than its single-metal counterparts.

“Our catalyst actually has a little higher activity than iridium and excellent stability,” said Mirkin. “That’s rare because oftentimes ruthenium is less stable. But the other elements in the composition stabilize ruthenium.”

The catalyst generated a voltage of 1.58 V at 1 A/cm2 and 1.77 V at 3 A/cm2.

When it comes to long-term performance, this new catalyst operated for over 1,000 hours with high efficiency and remarkable stability in a harsh acidic environment, while costing about one-sixteenth of Iridium.

“There’s lots of work to do to make this commercially viable, but it’s very exciting that we can identify promising catalysts so quickly – not only at the lab scale but for devices.”

– Montoya

In the process of finding a new catalyst, the team has created massive high-quality materials datasets, which can pave the way for machine learning and AI to design the next generation of new materials.

TRI, Northwestern, and its spinout Mattiq have already developed an algorithm to search the megalibraries at breakneck speeds. 

Yet, it’s just the beginning. As with AI, the megalibrary approach can scale beyond just accelerated catalyst discovery for energy conversion to transform materials discovery for nearly any technology, such as advanced optical components, biomedical devices, batteries, and more.

“We’re going to look for all sorts of materials for batteries, fusion, and more,” Mirkin said. “The world does not use the best materials for its needs. People found the best materials at a certain point in time, given the tools available to them. The problem is that we now have a huge infrastructure built around those materials, and we’re stuck with them. We want to turn that upside down. It’s time to truly find the best materials for every need – without compromise.”

Investing in the Power of Hydrogen

Bloom Energy Corp (BE -1.69%) is engaged in stationary fuel cell power generation. It provides two products commercially: the Bloom Electrolyzer for producing hydrogen and the Bloom Energy Server for generating electricity.

The company is producing hydrogen from the largest electrolyzer in the world, which is installed at NASA’s Ames Research Center, generating about 25% more hydrogen per megawatt than commercial electrolyzers like PEM or alkaline.

So far, Bloom Energy has deployed 1.5 GW of low-carbon power across over 1,200 installations globally.

With a market cap of $12.38 billion, BE shares are trading at $53.15, up 138.36% YTD. Recently, the company shares surpassed $55 to hit fresh highs thanks to increased interest from hyperscalers and data centres. Also, back in July, the company secured a milestone deal with Oracle and hinted at more such deals in the future.

It has an EPS (TTM) of 0.11 and a P/E (TTM) of 495.23.

As for financials, it reported a 19.5% YoY increase in revenue to $401.2 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025. Gross margin for the period was 26.7% and non-GAAP gross margin was 28.2%. The operating loss was $3.5 million, and non-GAAP operating income was $28.6 million.

“As onsite power becomes increasingly self-evident, given rapid AI growth, there has never been a better market pull for the Bloom products. Unlike alternatives, our products are purpose-built for the digital revolution.”

– Founder and CEO KR Sridhar

Latest Bloom Energy Corp (BE) Stock News and Developments

Conclusion

The simplest and most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen, promises a pathway to a greener future. The element, after all, has the potential to bridge renewable intermittency and decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. But realizing that promise requires investment, innovation, and collaboration across industries.

Latest breakthroughs in catalysts and electrolysis can help boost the efficiency of hydrogen production, thereby accelerating the transition to a sustainable energy economy.

References:

1. Zhao, Y., Wan, J., Ling, C., et al. Acidic oxygen reduction by single-atom Fe catalysts on curved supports. Nature, 644, 668–675, published 13 August 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09364-6
2.  Wang, Y., Qin, Y., Liu, S., Zhao, Y., Liu, L., Zhang, D., Zhao, S., Liu, J., Wang, J., Liu, Y., Wu, H., Jia, B., Qu, X., Li, H., Qin, M. Mesoporous single-crystalline particles as robust and efficient acidic oxygen evolution catalysts. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 147(16), 13345–13355, published 8 April 2025. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c18390
3. Huang, J., Wang, Z., Liang, J., Li, X-Y., Pietryga, J., Ye, Z., Smith, P. T., Kulaksizoglu, A., McCormick, C. R., Kim, J., Peng, B., Liu, Z., Xie, K., Torrisi, S. B., Montoya, J. H., Wu, G., Sargent, E. H., Mirkin, C. A. Accelerating the pace of oxygen evolution reaction catalyst discovery through megalibraries. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 147(34), published 19 August 2025. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c08326