As highlighted by the recent roadmaps from the European Union and the United States, water electrolysis is the most valuable high‐intensity technology for producing green hydrogen. Currently, two commercial low‐temperature water electrolyzer technologies exist: alkaline water electrolyzer (A‐WE) and proton‐exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEM‐WE). However, both have major drawbacks. A‐WE shows low productivity and efficiency, while PEM‐WE uses a significant amount of critical raw materials. Lately, the use of anion‐exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEM‐WE) has been proposed to overcome the limitations of the current commercial systems. AEM‐WE could become the cornerstone to achieve an intense, safe, and resilient green hydrogen production to fulfill the hydrogen targets to achieve the 2050 decarbonization goals. Here, the status of AEM‐WE development is discussed, with a focus on the most critical aspects for research and highlighting the potential routes for overcoming the remaining issues. The Review closes with the future perspective on the AEM‐WE research indicating the targets to be achieved.

In the last 20 years, direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) have been the subject of tremendous research efforts for the potential application as on-demand power sources. Two leading technologies respectively based on proton exchange membranes (PEMs) and anion exchange membranes (AEMs) have emerged: the first one operating in an acidic environment and conducting protons; the second one operating in alkaline electrolytes and conducting hydroxyl ions. In this review, we present an analysis of the state-of-the-art acidic and alkaline DAFCs fed with methanol and ethanol with the purpose to support a comparative analysis of acidic and alkaline systems, which is missing in the current literature. A special focus is placed on the effect of the reaction stoichiometry in acidic and alkaline systems. Particularly, we point out that, in alkaline systems, OH⁻ participates stoichiometrically to reactions, and that alcohol oxidation products are anions. This aspect must be considered when designing the fuel and when making an energy evaluation from a whole system perspective. Graphical Abstract