# Hydrogen Materials and Technologies in the Aspect of Utilization in the Polish Energy Sector
## 8 Conclusions and Prospects  
* The technologies and materials used in green hydrogen energy are more environmentally friendly but require large investment outlays, supplies of critical raw materials for electrolysers and fuel cells, and the consumption of large amounts of water. * The steam reforming of methane will be a bridge method of hydrogen production in the pursuit of zero emissions. With the drastically increasing costs of CO\({}_{2}\) emissions, the use of CCS/CCUS technology will become economically profitable and will be an essential activity to carry out the energy transformation in Poland. * Gasification as a technology for the thermal processing of biogenic waste and one of the closed loop technologies has great potential for hydrogen production and can play an important role in achieving the sustainable development goals in Poland. This technology is currently at the level of research and development projects and implementations. * The Polish hydrogen economy is in the initial stage of development. Currently, the main barriers to the development of hydrogen energy in Poland are the lack of appropriate legal regulations enabling and supporting the development of an ecological hydrogen industry, high investment and operating costs of a hydrogen infrastructure, and the limited availability of electrolysers. The condition for the development of the hydrogen economy in Poland is the simultaneous development of new capacities of renewable energy sources, primarily offshore and onshore wind farms. Nuclear power plants will provide significant support for the development of hydrogen energy. * In the long-term perspective of the development of the hydrogen market in Poland, the construction of a hydrogen terminal (similar to the LNG terminal), as well as the expansion of hydrogen pipelines, will be necessary to handle export/import trade. * Although there is currently no underground hydrogen storage facility in Poland, its construction should not pose any problems, taking into account the experience in the construction and operation of underground natural gas storage facilities. * Creating hydrogen valleys in Poland will support the use of research and development potential and should contribute to significant economic growth and the creation of new jobs. * Taking into account the growing demand for energy storage, it can be concluded that there is still a need to look for new technological solutions that are more economically beneficial and environmentally friendly. * To accelerate the development of hydrogen storage systems, it is recommended to use machine learning techniques, which will reduce the time and costs associated with conducting experiments on a large number of potential materials. * Hydrogen storage is recommended for use in the transport sector, seasonal energy storage, the flexibility of network operations, and for the integration of the electricity grid with the gas network. * The use of waste biomass or seawater for hydrogen production will certainly bring significant social and environmental benefits. * The development of hydrogen energy requires the drafting of international standards and regulations that are currently not available, as well as cooperation integrating the scientific community, industries, and the government. Conceptualization, K.G. and E.O. ; methodology, K.G. and E.O. ; formal analysis, K.G. and E.O. ; data curation, K.G. and E.O. ; writing--original draft preparation, K.G. and E.O. ; writing--review and editing, K.G., E.O., G.W. and J.P.-W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. The work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland (Statutory Research BS/PB-200-301/2024). The work was carried out as part of project no. WZ/WBiIS/6/2023 and WZ/WBiIS/7/2023 at the Bialystok University of Technology. Not applicable. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.