فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

South Africa ranks among the top countries in global CO2 emissions due to its dependence on coal. The global transition towards carbon-free energy has positioned hydrogen as a promising future fuel. This paper presents a bibliometric study of scholarly publications on hydrogen research (HR) in South Africa. Publications from 2001 to 2024 indexed in the Scopus database were extracted, refined, and analyzed using VOSviewer®. The study examined publication counts and trends, the most cited journals and publications, leading research sponsors, productive authors, institutions, countries, and key keywords. Additionally, the evolution, hotspots, and future directions of HR were identified and discussed. A total of 185 scholarly articles were sourced, with over 44% being journal articles. The most productive country, institution, journal, and author were South Africa (100 articles), Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa), the International Journal of Hydrogen (20 articles), and Linkov V. (8 articles), respectively. The most cited work, author, and journal were Ayodele (2019a), Bessarabov D., and the International Journal of Hydrogen, with 167, 437, and 828 citations, respectively. “Hydrogen” was the most frequently used keyword (26 occurrences). HR hotspots included electrolyzers, membranes, fuel cell development, and hydrogen production in South Africa, as well as their applications and impacts. Future HR efforts are expected to focus on green hydrogen production from renewable energy sources for export and hard-to-decarbonize sectors, social life cycle assessment, and practical applications of green hydrogen. Improved and sustained involvement of the South African government, research sponsors, policymakers and decision-makers, stakeholders, institutions, international investors, and researchers in HR is highly recommended to achieve carbon-free emissions and a significantly decarbonized economy.