Factors affecting the production cost of green hydrogen and its challenge for sustainable development

The green hydrogen economy is the answer to making zero carbon emissions in multiple sectors including, transportation, shipping, energy market, carbon credit, and other industrial sectors. The various methods of hydrogen production technologies from renewable and non-renewable sources of energy and their Levelised Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) of different methods of production of hydrogen are done in this paper. Different type of colors of hydrogen is classified according to their sources of production and there are mainly three types of hydrogen: Grey, Blue, or Green. The latest technologies used for hydrogen production from fossil fuels, including reforming (steam methane, partial oxidation, auto thermal, plasma) and renewable sources (Biomass, thermochemical, and water splitting). This review paper focuses on types of hydrogen production methods and provides insight into the cost of producing hydrogen and the factors affecting its production. The most influential factors that affect the production cost of green hydrogen in the technologies of photo fermentation, dark fermentation, thermolysis, and photolysis are CAPEX, water and algae, photo bioreactor, electrolyser, electricity respectively. Producing hydrogen by water electrolysis is a high-purity, environmentally benign, and sustainable process. Also analyzed the challenges faced in terms of technical, economical, and social and how to mitigate these challenges. At present the grey hydrogen cost is the cheapest but in the future, green hydrogen cost is estimated at around $2–$1 per kg of hydrogen, and this can be possible by reducing the cost of electrolyzers, fuel cells, and green electricity.