As global demand for clean energy continues to rise, hydrogen, as an ideal energy carrier, plays a crucial role in the energy transition. Traditional hydrogen production methods predominantly rely on fossil fuels, leading to environmental pollution and energy inefficiency. In contrast, plasma-assisted hydrogen production, as an emerging technology, has gained significant attention due to its high efficiency, environmental friendliness, and flexibility. Plasma technology generates high-energy electrons or ions by exciting gas molecules, which, under specific conditions, effectively decompose water vapor or hydrocarbon gases to produce hydrogen. This review systematically summarizes the basic principles, technological routes, research progress, and potential applications of plasma-assisted hydrogen production. It focuses on various plasma-based hydrogen production methods, such as water vapor decomposition, hydrocarbon cracking, arc discharge, and microwave discharge, highlighting their advantages and challenges. Additionally, it addresses key issues facing plasma-assisted hydrogen production, including energy efficiency improvement, reactor stability, and cost optimization, and discusses the future prospects of these technologies. With ongoing advancements, plasma-assisted hydrogen production is expected to become a mainstream technology for hydrogen production, contributing to global goals of zero carbon emissions and sustainable energy development.

As an efficient and low-carbon renewable energy source, hydrogen plays a strategic role in the global energy transition, particularly in the transportation sector. However, the flammable and explosive nature of hydrogen makes leakage risks in enclosed environments a core challenge for the safe promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Catalytic combustion sensors are ideal choices due to their high sensitivity and long lifespan. Nevertheless, they face technical bottlenecks under vehicle operational conditions, such as high-power consumption caused by elevated working temperatures, slow response rates, weak anti-interference capabilities, and catalyst poisoning. This paper systematically reviews the research status of catalytic combustion hydrogen sensors for vehicle applications, summarizes technical difficulties and development strategies from the perspectives of hydrogen-sensitive material design and integration processes, and provides theoretical references and technical guidance for the development of catalytic combustion hydrogen sensors suitable for vehicle use.

The sulfur-iodine (SI) cycle holds great promise as an alternative large-scale process for converting water into hydrogen without CO₂ emissions. A major issue regarding the long-term stability and activity of the catalysts is their poor sulfur deactivation resistance in the HI feeding process. In this work, the effect of Ru addition for enhancing the activity and sulfur resistance of SiO₂-supported Ni catalysts in the HI decomposition reaction has been investigated. The presence of H₂SO₄ molecules in the HI results in severe sulfur deactivation of the Ru-free Ni/SiO₂ catalysts by blocking the active sites. However, Ni–Ru/SiO₂ catalysts show higher catalytic activity without sulfur-poisoning by 25% and exhibit more superior catalytic performance than the Ru-free catalyst. The addition of Ru to the Ni/SiO₂ catalyst promotes the stability and activity of the catalysts. The experimental trends in activity and sulfur tolerance are consistent with the theoretical modeling, with the catalytic activities existing in the order Ni/SiO₂ < Ni–Ru/SiO₂. The effect of Ru on the improvement in sulfur resistance over Ni-based catalysts is attributed to electronic factors, as evidenced by theory modeling analysis and detailed characterizations.

Ammonia (NH₃) plays a vital role in both the agriculture and energy sectors, serving as a precursor for nitrogen fertilizers and as a promising carbon-free fuel and hydrogen carrier. However, the conventional Haber–Bosch process is highly energy-intensive, operating under elevated temperatures and pressures, and contributes significantly to global CO₂ emissions. In recent years, nonthermal plasma (NTP)-assisted ammonia synthesis has emerged as a promising alternative that enables ammonia production under mild conditions. With its ability to activate inert N₂ molecules through energetic electrons and reactive species, NTP offers a sustainable route with potential integration into renewable energy systems. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in NTP-assisted ammonia synthesis, covering reactor design, catalyst development, plasma–catalyst synergistic mechanisms, and representative reaction pathways. Particular attention is given to the influence of key plasma parameters, such as discharge power, pulse voltage, frequency, gas flow rate, and N₂/H₂ ratio, on reaction performance and energy efficiency. Additionally, comparative studies on plasma reactor configurations and materials are presented. The integration of NTP systems with green hydrogen sources and strategies to mitigate ammonia decomposition are also discussed. This review provides comprehensive insights and guidance for advancing efficient, low-carbon, and distributed ammonia production technologies.

Non-thermal plasma technology provides a promising route for ammonia decomposition to hydrogen under atmospheric pressure and relatively mild thermal conditions. In this study, ammonia decomposition was investigated in a coaxial dielectric barrier discharge reactor driven by alternating current (AC) and nanosecond pulse (NP) excitation. The effects of waveform parameters, including pulse width, rise time, and fall time, on the electrical characteristics and ammonia decomposition performance were systematically examined. In addition to NH₃ conversion and H₂ yield, an energy utilization efficiency (EUE) metric was introduced as a comparative indicator to evaluate the effective use of input energy under different operating conditions. The results show that the NP-DBD system outperforms the AC-DBD system, achieving up to 99.5% NH₃ conversion under nanosecond pulse excitation conditions associated with enhanced transient excitation. Increasing the pulse width prolongs the temporal energy deposition process and improves the effective use of deposited energy, leading to higher NH₃ conversion and improved EUE performance. Rise time also affects the reaction behavior, whereas the influence of fall time is comparatively weaker. Gas temperature analysis gave a rotational temperature range of 388–597 K and a reaction-gas temperature range of 297–395 K, suggesting that high NH₃ conversion can be achieved with comparatively limited macroscopic gas heating under NP excitation. This study clarifies how pulse-parameter modulation influences energy deposition and ammonia decomposition behavior under atmospheric-pressure NP-DBD, and provides useful insight into catalyst-free NH₃-to-H₂ conversion under mild conditions.