{"doi":"10.1002/er.5895","title":"Hydrogen energy related research and development efforts in Canada: A perspective","abstract":"Hydrogen is known as the lightest chemical element and potentially one of the greatest energy solutions for achieving better energy economy, cleaner environment, better sustainability and brighter future. In addition, it appears to be a key fuel, a unique energy carrier and an essential commodity to produce other chemicals and fuels. Worldwide, there have been noteworthy efforts regarding hydrogen energy research and developments (R&Ds). The discovery of hydrogen is dated back to the 15th century. Hydrogen was first artificially produced in gas form by Phillip von Hohenheim, but at that time, he was not aware that a new flammable chemical element was produced. In 1671, Robert Boyle conducted an experiment with different metals via dipping them into acid. Hydrogen gas was produced during the experiment by the reaction called single-displacement, and he noted the fumes were flammable. When the date showed 1776, the first hydrogen-related research paper was published by Henry Cavendish, confirming that hydrogen is a distinct element and flammable.1 Today, Cavendish's study is considered a cornerstone for hydrogen-related studies. One of the very first hydrogen energy related meeting activities was initiated with a milestone-type conference in Miami, USA, by Professor Nejat Veziroglu in 1974.2 Since then, hydrogen energy has become the subject area of many research activities. Hydrogen, consisting of one proton and one electron, is the simplest and most abundant element on the Earth.3 However, hydrogen does not exist naturally in gas form. Instead, hydrogen occurs within a compound such as water (H2O). Therefore, hydrogen is an energy carrier, not an energy source. The distinction between energy carriers and sources is that energy carriers are the medium that transport energy from production to end-use. In contrast, energy sources are the original resource from which energy carriers can be produced.4 Instead of combustion, the use of hydrogen in a fuel cell to generate power produces only water and heat as byproducts. This feature can be considered as the primary importance of hydrogen within the nature-friendly energy concept. Hydrogen is appraised as a promising solution as a medium for transportation and storage of energy. However, it is difficult to keep hydrogen in condensed phase due to its low density. Therefore, regardless of the storage method, hydrogen has the lowest calorific value per unit of volume compared to conventional fuels.5 On the other hand, hydrogen-fueled power systems achieve much higher efficiency than that of conventional fuel-based power systems. Thus, the problem of low hydrogen storage density is compensated.6 The method of producing hydrogen has a crucial role in achieving cradle-to-grave nature-friendly hydrogen-based energy applications. Hydrogen can be produced via electrolysis of water or thermal processing of hydrocarbons. Today, more than three-quarters of industrial hydrogen is generated via natural gas or coal-based steam methane reforming (SMR) method.7 Fossil fuel-based hydrogen generation emits 830 million tons of CO2 annually, which corresponds to 2% of global CO2 emissions.8 Therefore, more and more research and funds are promoted to generate hydrogen within a more environmentally-benign manner. Figure 1 shows the annual renewable-based hydrogen generation ratios from 2010 to 2030. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA),9 0.36 million tons (Mts) of low-carbon hydrogen production was achieved in 2019. When annual global hydrogen generation is considered (69 Mts/year), it can be realized that clean hydrogen corresponds to around 0.52% of global hydrogen generation. It is targeted to reach 7.92 million tons of annual low-carbon hydrogen generation by 2030. In this regard, increasing the share of renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, biomass, nuclear, or hydro, in global energy supply breakdown, will play a key role in realizing this target. Hydrogen produced from natura","journal":"International Journal of Energy Research","year":2020,"id":74473,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":10,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9545,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":389906,"name":"İbrahim Dinçer","orcid":"0000-0002-7092-2102","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":389905,"name":"Ali Erdogan Karaca","orcid":"0000-0003-3712-2688","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":4,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:46:11.663457Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}