Offshore Renewable Energy-Based Hydrogen Production Systems: Technologies, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

ABSTRACT: Traditional onshore hydrogen production systems are constrained by limited land availability and freshwater resources, which restrict their potential for large-scale deployment. Offshore renewable energy-based hydrogen production systems provide an effective approach for accommodating abundant marine renewable energy resources and establishing integrated green hydrogen supply chains, representing a promising pathway toward future zero-carbon energy systems. However, system-level integration technologies remain in the stages of theoretical development and engineering demonstration, with several critical technical challenges that limit their commercial deployment and large-scale application. This paper presents a narrative review of the typical configurations and key technologies of offshore renewable energy-based hydrogen production systems. Based on recent global research advances and representative marine engineering demonstrations, major technical challenges, including stochastic fluctuations of renewable power generation, seawater corrosion, and multi-physics-field monitoring, are comprehensively analyzed. Corresponding mitigation strategies, such as multi-energy complementary integration and corrosion-resistant material optimization, are summarized. Furthermore, from a system-level perspective, the coupling mechanisms among multiple subsystems are investigated, and a whole-chain coordinated optimization framework is proposed. This review provides theoretical foundations and engineering references for the large-scale deployment and integrated development of offshore green hydrogen production systems.