Management of hydrogen mobility challenges: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Researchers have aimed to find sustainable solutions for future mobility because of climate and energy demand issues, making the shift toward sustainable-powered traction essential. However, high costs and the need for partnerships between public and private entities affect hydrogen mobility in its early-stage development. This study examines 233 papers from the Scopus database to shed light on a systematic road to this theme's main features and recurrent issues by adopting bibliometric and coding analyses. The main results show an expansion of publications from 1999 to 2022, which is related to the increased publications and scientific productivity of researchers on this topic and factors such as energy crises and restrictive oil price policies. Furthermore, the expansion of interest is also due to multiple initiatives by supranational entities. The study uncovers the most relevant journals, authors, countries of collaboration, and co-occurrences of keywords. Using a topic dendrogram, we discovered four search clusters: (1) hydrogen for sustainable development, (2) hydrogen as an alternative fuel for mobility: challenges, (3) hydrogen and policy implications, and (4) hydrogen and mobility reshaped. Based on the knowledge gained, our study confirms the challenges of hydrogen mobility and the difficulties associated with higher costs, mainly in sectors where the energy used for transformation is derived from sources other than renewable ones. Further implications show that an alternative to traditional engines requires substantial investment from public and private companies and proper business models. We provide a scientific roadmap of the most relevant issues for managers and policymakers to extend the use of hydrogen in the transportation sector.