China has recently elevated hydrogen energy to a strategic priority within its national energy security framework. As policy support, technology maturation, and regulatory integration advance, the sector is moving from preliminary demonstration toward more systematic deployment. This study develops a three-stage roadmap for China’s hydrogen energy industry toward 2060 by integrating techno-economic modeling, scenario analysis, and policy-target cross-checking. The results suggest a staged evolution within the broader energy system: scenario-specific enablement through 2030, system regulation and cross-sector integration during 2030−2040, and a possible foundational energy-carrier role by 2060. In the current phase, hydrogen deployment is constrained by high renewable-hydrogen costs, incomplete safety regulation, and system-compatibility barriers; its role therefore remains concentrated in selected industrial and mobility applications. In the mid-term phase, declining renewable-hydrogen costs and maturing storage and transportation networks could allow hydrogen to support long-duration energy storage, renewable-power integration, and industrial decarbonization. In the long term, hydrogen may form a dual-carrier energy architecture with electricity, provided that technology, safety governance, infrastructure, and standards continue to mature. The proposed roadmap offers a structured reference for hydrogen-related policy planning, infrastructure investment, and future research under China’s carbon-neutrality transition.

Hydrogen energy is an widely used, abundant, green, low-carbon energy carrier. Hydrogen is gradually becoming one of the most important energy carriers for our future green energy transformation. This paper provides a detailed introduction to the basic and applied research achievements in various fields related to hydrogen production made by the Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University. A pyrochrite catalyst was synthesized for hydrocarbon fuel reforming with prototype hydrogen reforming units then used to evaluate the catalyst effectiveness. An elevated temperature purification process was developed for elevated temperature hydrogen production using both a nitrogen-modified activated carbon hydrophobic adsorbent and a layered double hydroxide based adsorbent for the entire temperature range which can provide on-site H₂/CO₂ separation using elevated temperature pressure swing adsorption. For electrolysis using renewable energy sources, the co-electrolysis of carbon dioxide and water to produce hydrogen was realized in a solid oxide electrolytic cell with the energy consumption of the alkaline water electrolysis reduced by raising the temperature to reduce the theoretical water decomposition voltage. These results contribute to the international hydrogen fuel cell industry developing efficient hydrogen production technologies that will boost the transformation of future energy utilization systems as a crucial step towards building a low-carbon, safe and efficient modern energy system.