Green Hydrogen Production via Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis: A Critical Review

Abstract

Anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) has emerged as one of the most promising technologies for green hydrogen production, as it does not require platinum group metals (PGMs) and operates under alkaline conditions using abundant and cost-effective transition metal catalysts. However, the gap between performance demonstrated at the laboratory scale and requirements for industrial-scale deployment remains. This review takes an integrated approach to the main factors influencing this transition: the kinetics of hydrogen evolution (HER) and oxygen evolution (OER) reactions in an alkaline medium, the system operating parameters, and the state of the art in PGM-free electrocatalysts and anion exchange membranes. The analysis reveals that OER is the primary kinetic limiting factor, that no commercial membrane simultaneously meets all established performance criteria, and that the joint selection of the membrane–catalyst pair is the most critical design criterion for system optimization. Recent advances in both components establish AEMWE as a viable technology for sustainable hydrogen production at industrial scale.