Hydrogen-Based Sustainable Mobility: A Review of Hydrogen as an Alternative Fuel for Transportation

Greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector account for approximately 24% of global energy-related emissions. The urgent need to decarbonise the transportation sector has intensified the search for sustainable alternative fuels. Hydrogen is recognised as a promising fuel alternative, characterised by zero tailpipe emissions. This study provides a significant contribution through a combined transport-focused synthesis of hydrogen research that bridges engineering, environmental, economic evaluation, and policy analysis. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were applied to conduct a systematic review on the use of hydrogen in transportation systems from 2010 to 2025. From an initial 1247 records identified across popular databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, and Springer, 120 studies were included in the final qualitative synthesis of which 70 are citated. This paper covers hydrogen transition pathways, technology readiness, infrastructure, safety, and environmental performance. Moreover, it discusses both opportunities and challenges in hydrogen deployment and a regional analysis of developments in the Middle East is provided. The study demonstrated that the growing global interest in hydrogen as an alternative sustainable energy source is reflected in large-scale projects and supportive policies and regulations. Despite the identified momentum, several challenges impede the mass adoption of hydrogen including high costs of production, especially green hydrogen, and storage, refuelling, and inconsistent regulatory requirements in various jurisdictions. The findings herein might also help transportation authorities and policymakers better understand the current situation and future trends in the global use of hydrogen as a clean sustainable fuel.