This contribution proposes the usage of Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) for the establishment of a decentralised energy storage network. Due to the continually increasing amount of renewable energy within the power grid, in particular in countries of the European Union, a huge demand for storage capacities develops that can hardly be met by large-scale systems alone. Because of their high storage density and good manageability LOHC substances permit the local storage of excess energy in residential and commercial buildings. Following the approach of a CHP system (‘combined heat and power’ or more precisely a ‘combined heat and storage’ system), thermal losses from the storage processes can be used for heating (and cooling) purposes in order to increase the overall efficiency. An evaluation of the economic feasibility identifies possible approaches to generate income from storage operation. The usage of exhaust heat for heating proves to significantly support the business case by providing a considerable financial contribution that is usually not exploitable for centralised storage units.

Our contribution demonstrates that hydrogen storage in stationary Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) systems becomes much simpler and significantly more efficient if both, the LOHC hydrogenation and the LOHC dehydrogenation reaction are carried out in the same reactor using the same catalyst.

The catalytic hydrogenation of the LOHC compound dibenzyltoluene (H0-DBT) was investigated by ¹H NMR spectroscopy in order to elucidate the reaction pathway of its charging process with hydrogen in the context of future hydrogen storage applications.

Polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWE) are currently restricted to an operating temperature range between 50 to 80 °C. This review shows that elevated temperature (ET) above 90 °C can be advantageous with respect to i) reduced cell voltages, ii) a reduction of catalyst loading or possibly the employment of less noble electrocatalysts, and iii) a greater potential for waste heat utilization when the electrolyzer is operated in exothermal mode (when the cell voltage is higher than the thermoneutral voltage). Together with presenting an overview of the materials and components utilized in elevated temperature PEMWE under liquid and steam operation, this article summarizes the experimental and modeling performances reported to date, highlights the challenges ahead, and suggests aspects, which will need to be considered to improve the performance at elevated temperature. Key points, which arise from this work are the extensive need of re‐assessing the material selection both for the cell components and also at a system level, the effects and optimization of working with steam operation, and in the long run, the need for techno‐economic analyses to ultimately assess whether efficiency gains will truly translate to a cost‐effective technology alternative.