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Green Hydrogen’s Tipping Point? Scientists Reveal Scalable Breakthrough
Jerusalem, 7 July, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- A major international scientific review led by Technion researchers is bringing long-awaited clarity to the future of green hydrogen, presenting a breakthrough method that may unlock truly scalable, cost-effective, and renewable energy-compatible hydrogen production.
Green hydrogen is a clean fuel made by using renewable energy — like solar or wind power — to split water into hydrogen and oxygen in a process known as electrolysis. Green hydrogen is still expensive to make, but new technologies are trying to bring the cost down.
Published in the peer-reviewed Nature Reviews Clean Technology, the Technion paper consolidates for the first time the global body of knowledge around a process called DWE – decoupled water electrolysis – and lays out a practical roadmap toward its commercial implementation. Co-authors of the review include researchers from the University of Glasgow, the Technical University of Denmark, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, and H2Pro itself.
The review represents the most comprehensive examination to date of DWE’s technological potential, technical challenges, and readiness for scale. It highlights how DWE could overcome key limitations of conventional electrolysis and serve as a cornerstone of the renewable energy transition. Unlike standard electrolysis, which uses a membrane and simultaneous gas production, DWE separates the generation of hydrogen and oxygen into different times or compartments — eliminating the need for costly, failure-prone membranes and offering greater efficiency, safety, and resilience to intermittent power sources.
“Once hydrogen production becomes possible on a commercial scale and at competitive prices, green hydrogen will replace a large part of the fuels we currently use in heavy transportation and industrial sectors,” said Prof. Avner Rothschild from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, who led the research. “I believe that DWE brings new news in the ability to produce green hydrogen from renewable sources.”
The research team at the Technion — including Prof. Gidi Grader, Dr. Chen Dotan, and Dr. Avigail Landman — developed a key variant of DWE in 2015, using nickel-based electrodes. That work led to a patent and, eventually, the founding of Israeli startup H2Pro in 2019. The company has since taken the lead in bringing DWE to market and is now preparing to install the world’s first commercial-scale DWE system. This marks the first public confirmation of a real-world deployment of the technology, shifting the field from lab-scale research into industrial application.
“This is the first time we’ve seen a unified, peer-reviewed strategy for scaling DWE from milligram-per-day lab setups to systems producing tons of hydrogen daily,” Rothschild explained. The review estimates that roughly a million such units may be needed globally to meet demand — or more, as the hydrogen market grows. Unlike existing systems, DWE is inherently compatible with fluctuating energy sources like solar and wind, operating much like an electrolysis system with an internal battery to smooth out power volatility.
The Technion-led breakthrough in decoupled water electrolysis (DWE) paves the way for large-scale, affordable green hydrogen production using renewable energy. This enables practical, zero-emission fuel solutions for heavy transportation—such as trucks, ships, and airplanes—and offers a clean energy source for high-pollution industries like steelmaking and fertilizer production.
DWE systems can also act as energy storage, smoothing out the volatility of solar and wind power and helping stabilize electricity grids. By eliminating costly membranes and allowing hydrogen to be produced more safely and efficiently, DWE supports the creation of a global green hydrogen infrastructure—enhancing energy security, reducing carbon emissions, and accelerating the transition to a sustainable energy economy.
With the hydrogen market already valued at $250 billion annually, the move to commercially viable green hydrogen production could more than double its size within a decade. “Green hydrogen is expected to account for about 10% of the overall energy market in the future,” Rothschild noted. “As Darwin said, in evolution it is not the strongest that survive but those who adapt best. DWE represents that adaptation — a hydrogen production method built for a renewable future.”
