Green hydrogen generation: companies, startups and research

Plug Power, ITM Power, Siemens AG and Air Liquide are among the companies active in green hydrogen generation. Plug Power and ITM Power are associated with electrolyzer deployment, while Air Liquide is involved in renewable hydrogen projects for refinery use. The organizations listed also include BASF, which supplies polymer materials for electrolyzer components.

The named startup examples are LHYFE and Rondo Energy Inc. LHYFE develops and operates renewable hydrogen production sites for industrial and mobility customers. Rondo Energy develops thermal energy storage that can supply high-temperature heat to solid-oxide electrolysis systems. These examples illustrate different routes to production and integration; the available facts do not rank startups by commercial prospects.

Chinese Academy of Sciences CAS, Tsinghua University and Xi'an Jiaotong University are among the leading research organizations listed. Their work includes electrolyzer electrodes, catalyst systems, operation under variable renewable power and energy-saving anodic reactions. Nankai University is also active in anion-exchange membrane electrolysis, including catalyst-interface engineering for oxygen evolution.

Recorded funding includes $2,992,758,977 in grants across 607 awards since 2020. The dataset also reports $12,279,607,288 across 18 funding rounds. These are separate funding categories, and the listed round examples include project and infrastructure financing as well as grants, so they should not be treated as directly comparable investment totals.

Siemens Energy Global GmbH & is the leading holder in the listed patent-holder data, with 12 patents. Rondo Energy Inc., Thyssenkrupp Uhde and Thyssenkrupp Ag each have 9, while Haldor Topsøe and Asaka Riken each have 8. These figures refer to the patent-holder list, not all patents associated with each organization.

Patent activity declined 57.8% in the last 12 months compared with the previous 12 months, while publication activity grew 19.2%. The dataset records 391 patents in its 24-month window. This contrast indicates that research output is increasing even as recent patent activity has slowed; it does not establish why the two trends differ.

The six listed approaches are alkaline, proton-exchange membrane, anion-exchange membrane and solid oxide electrolysis, plus direct solar water splitting and hybrid or decoupled electrolysis. They differ in electrolyte or membrane, operating conditions and how they use renewable energy. The main trade-offs include materials cost, response to variable power, durability, heat integration and the complexity of combining or separating reactions.

The United States leads the country-level activity data, followed by China, the United Kingdom and Germany. The dataset reports 46,960 documents for the United States, 22,113 for China, 20,142 for the United Kingdom and 18,966 for Germany. These figures indicate recorded activity, not installed production capacity or commercial output.

The listed applications include ammonia and fertilizer production, refining and chemicals, iron and steel, heavy transport and shipping, aviation and synthetic fuels, and grid balancing and energy storage. These uses are relevant where hydrogen can supply a chemical feedstock, fuel or energy-storage medium. Their deployment depends on renewable electricity, production cost, infrastructure and the needs of each end use.

September 2026 research highlights water quality in photocatalytic hydrogen production and a self-rebuilding multimetal electrode reported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Recent work also explores precious-metal-free high-entropy oxides for anion-exchange membrane electrolysis and anodic oxidation reactions that produce higher-value chemicals. These directions address operating cost and durability as well as catalyst performance.