Producing low-carbon hydrogen to use as a clean energy carrier is an important step towards a decarbonized economy. Plasma pyrolysis is an emerging technology that has great potential for the large-scale production of low-carbon and affordable hydrogen.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Highly efficient heterogeneous thermal catalysis for noble-metal-free hydrogen production from formic acid
Nature Communications Open Access 27 December 2025
-
Shielded bifunctional nanoreactor enabled tandem catalysis for plasma methane coupling
Nature Communications Open Access 17 May 2025
-
Comparative assessment of the scientific structure of biomass-based hydrogen from a cross-domain perspective
Energy Informatics Open Access 14 October 2024
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References
Abánades, A., Rubbia, C. & Salmieri, D. Thermal cracking of methane into hydrogen for a CO2-free utilization of natural gas. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 38, 8491–8496 (2013).
Schneider, S., Bajohr, S., Graf, F. & Kolb, T. State of the art of hydrogen production via pyrolysis of natural gas. ChemBioEng Rev. 7, 150–158 (2020).
Kerscher, F. et al. Low-carbon hydrogen production via electron beam plasma methane pyrolysis: techno-economic analysis and carbon footprint assessment. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 46, 19897–19912 (2021).
Timmerberg, S., Kaltschmitt, M. & Finkbeiner, M. Hydrogen and hydrogen-derived fuels through methane decomposition of natural gas–GHG emissions and costs. Energy Convers. Manag. X 7, 100043 (2020).
Uekert, T., Pichler, C. M., Schubert, T. & Reisner, E. Solar-driven reforming of solid waste for a sustainable future. Nat. Sustain. 4, 383–391 (2021).
Weidenkaff, A., Wagner-Wenz, R. & Veziridis, A. A world without electronic waste. Nat. Rev. Mater. 6, 462–463 (2021).
Ramos, A. & Rouboa, A. Life cycle thinking of plasma gasification as a waste-to-energy tool: review on environmental, economic and social aspects. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 153, 111762 (2022).
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to K. Hendrich for her kind support during the discussion of the content of the Comment. X.T. acknowledges financial support from the UK EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account, the Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship (ref. NAF/R1/180230) and the British Council (no. 623389161).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Related links
5,000 tons of hydrogen per year: https://energynews.biz/monolith-to-expand-turquoise-hydrogen-plant/
Hydrogen is increasingly seen as a potentially zero-carbon and zero-pollution energy vector: https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-hydrogen
Targets set in the COP26 Glasgow agreement: https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cop26_auv_2f_cover_decision.pdf
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, G., Tu, X., Homm, G. et al. Plasma pyrolysis for a sustainable hydrogen economy. Nat Rev Mater 7, 333–334 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00439-8
Published:
Version of record:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00439-8
This article is cited by
-
Highly efficient heterogeneous thermal catalysis for noble-metal-free hydrogen production from formic acid
Nature Communications (2025)
-
Shielded bifunctional nanoreactor enabled tandem catalysis for plasma methane coupling
Nature Communications (2025)
-
Wind turbine blade recycling for greener and sustainable wind energy
Nature Reviews Materials (2025)
-
Superlattice ordering Pt2CoNi intermetallic nanocatalysts with surface microstrain for efficient hydrogen electrocatalysis
Science China Materials (2025)
-
Comparative assessment of the scientific structure of biomass-based hydrogen from a cross-domain perspective
Energy Informatics (2024)