Survey Results of Liquid Hydrogen Users (n = 75)

View detailed results here

In early 2025, I conducted a survey of global liquid hydrogen users that resulted in 75 responses. A summary of the results can be viewed by clicking on the above caption. Many thanks to the fantastic team at Mission Hydrogen for getting the word out about this survey!

The first two questions looked at regional demographics. The majority of respondents were from Europe, followed by Asia and North America. The remaining respondents were split among South America, Africa, and Oceania. The location of their customers followed the same trend, although with slightly different percentage values.

Energy led the primary industry pick for the respondents at 40% followed by research plus R&D at almost 19%. Aviation, automotive, and processing made up the next tier of respondents. The remaining industries represented were maritime, military, rail, trucking, multiple sectors, third party testing, hazardous area classification, consulting, and water.

The vast majority of respondents (61%) identified water electrolysis as their primary hydrogen production method. The other identified methods were SMR with CCUS, hydrocarbon feedstock w/o CCUS, other hydrocarbon feedstock with CCUS, and geological extraction. The percentage of respondents who indicated undecided or other methods was 20%.

Things get very interesting as the survey starts zeroing in on liquid hydrogen (LH2). Nearly 39% have not identified a supply source of LH2 for their needs, a clear gap or opportunity depending on your perspective. An onsite liquefaction system was identified by 24% of respondents. The remainder were equally split between a primary supplier in large quantities and intermediate supplier in moderate or small quantities.

LH2 storage vessel size covered the gambit among the respondents with the most common size between 1-10 cubic meters, and the next most common size of 10-100 cubic meters. On the large end, nearly 19% indicated greater than 1000 cubic meters, and 20% selected 100-1000 cubic meters. That's a lot of large LH2 storage vessels.

Most of the respondents plan a LH2 storage time of several days to several weeks. The next largest groups indicated storage needs of several months or more than six months. Less than 7% needed less than a day of storage.

More than 45% of respondents thought operational LH2 systems would be available in their industry in 1 to 5 years. And 8% indicated LH2 has already become operational in their industry. Nearly a third of the respondents chose 6-10 years, with the remaining selecting more than 10 years.

Cost of hydrogen and economic viability were the highest ranking reasons respondents identified as preventing widespread adoption of LH2 in their industry. These were followed by insufficient investment and public policy. Technical feasibility, workforce skills, and standards and safety rounded out the rest.

Answers to the final five questions provide a wealth of qualitive data that is difficult to categorize, but well worth studying for insights:

1. How can adoption of liquid hydrogen be accelerated in your industry?
2. Which liquid hydrogen applications do you see becoming common in 5 yrs? 10 yrs? Longer? 
3. Where is liquid hydrogen currently getting the most traction (i.e., region or country)? Why?
4. What role should hydrogen play in the transition to a more sustainable future?
5. Is there any other feedback that you want to provide?

Thank you to all the respondents for sharing your perspectives!

Matt Moran is the Managing Member at Moran Innovation LLC, and previous Managing Partner at Isotherm Energy. He's been developing power and propulsion systems for more than 40 years; and first-of-a-kind gas, slush, and liquid hydrogen systems since the mid-1980s. Matt was also the Sector Manager for Energy & Materials in his last position at NASA where he worked for 31 years. He's been a cofounder in seven technology-based startups; and provided R&D and engineering support to many organizations. Matt has three patents and more than 50 publications including his online Cryogenic Fluid Management guide and Decarbonizing Mobility with Liquid Hydrogen SAE report. He has created and taught liquid hydrogen courses, webinars, and workshops to global audiences.