Hydrogen fuel is considered pivotal in producing clean energy. According to the International Energy Agency’s Global Hydrogen Review 2025, worldwide hydrogen demand increased to almost 100 million tonnes in 2024, which was a two percent increase from 2023. The majority of that demand was met by hydrogen produced from fossil fuels with no carbon capture.
That growth is driven primarily by industrial demand rather than consumer-facing energy uses.
The degree of hydrogen’s sustainability depends on how it is produced, which influences whether the hydrogen is green, blue, grey, or pink.
Grey hydrogen, currently the most common type of hydrogen, is produced from natural gas through steam methane reforming. Steam reforming emits a significant amount of CO2, making it less expensive but less sustainable.
Hamed Heidarpour, a PhD student in Ali Seifitokaldani’s Electrocatalysis Lab at McGill University in Montreal, said creating hydrogen from water through electrolysis, on the other hand, generates no CO2,” said Heidarpour. “But the method is inefficient, expensive, and requires a lot of electricity, which doesn’t always come from renewable sources.”
Low-carbon hydrogen with waste
In the study, the researchers used hydroxymethylfurfural, an organic compound produced by breaking down non-food plant materials such as pulp and paper residue, to test their approach.
Heidarpour noted that hydroxymethylfurfural is not currently available on a large scale and is used in research as a model compound. The broader concept, he said, is not specific to that molecule and applies to a class of aldehydes that could be derived from biomass processing or existing industrial streams.
Heidarpour says the approach being tested by the researchers doesn’t directly compete with steam methane reforming on absolute cost alone, but it would offer a uniquely different carbon profile.
“Unlike steam methane reforming, which is inherently tied to fossil carbon and CO₂ emissions, aldehyde-assisted electrolysis can be fully decarbonized when powered by low-carbon electricity and biomass-derived feedstocks,” said Heidarpour. “Compared to current green hydrogen pathways based on conventional water electrolysis, the main difference lies in energy efficiency.”
“For the hydrogen market, the main change is that hydrogen production would no longer be limited to stand-alone electrolyzers or centralized facilities,” said Heidarpour. “Instead, hydrogen could be generated in integrated, site-specific systems, particularly where suitable aldehyde streams and renewable electricity are already available.”
New production niches
According to the researchers, this would create new production niches that are currently difficult to serve with conventional green hydrogen technologies.
“Rather than producing hydrogen as a single product, this approach enables dual-function systems that combine hydrogen generation with biomass or waste-stream valorization,” said Heidarpour. “That shifts part of the hydrogen market from a pure energy model toward a hybrid chemical–energy model, where hydrogen production is coupled to existing industrial processes.”
For the broader clean energy ecosystem, Heidarpour says this introduces greater flexibility. “It allows renewable electricity to be used more efficiently in certain settings, reduces reliance on energy-intensive oxygen evolution, and creates stronger links between clean power, biomass utilization, and chemical manufacturing.”
“At the same time, this technology is not intended to be a universal solution. Its impact would be concentrated in locations where the right conditions exist. In those contexts, however, it could meaningfully lower the energy and carbon intensity of hydrogen production and complement,” said Heidarpour.
Moving beyond the laboratory, Heidarpour said the next step would be extended durability testing under continuous operation. That means moving from hours to thousands of hours of testing. It would also require using realistic feed streams rather than idealized laboratory conditions in industrial contexts where cost, reliability and material availability already matter.
The research was published in the Chemical Engineering Journal and conducted using beamlines at the Canadian Light Source, University of Saskatchewan.
