Offshore Wind-to-Hydrogen Production: Technical Pathways, Challenges, and Prospects

This paper provides a review of three mainstream technical routes for producing hydrogen from offshore wind power: offshore distributed hydrogen production, offshore centralized hydrogen production, and onshore hydrogen production. Based on global engineering cases, we analyze the characteristics, application scenarios, and current development status of each route, paying particular attention to economic performance, system efficiency, and environmental adaptability. The main challenges identified include the limited adaptability of electrolysis technologies, high full-life-cycle costs, and persistent bottlenecks in storage and transportation. Building on these findings, we summarize technological development trends and propose future directions in areas such as electrolyzer innovation, system efficiency optimization, direct seawater utilization, storage and transport infrastructure. This review aims to provide a reference for advancing research, development, and large-scale applications of offshore wind-to-hydrogen technologies.