With the rise of the hydrogen economy and the necessity of active planetary carbon management, opportunities emerge for utilizing oxygen generated as a byproduct of electrolytic hydrogen production. While oxygen has established uses, this perspective focuses on novel opportunities arising from the substantial increase in oxygen production driven by the growing green hydrogen sector. Today's large-scale, fossil-based chemical industry achieves its high efficiency primarily through integrated networks. Green oxygen could serve as a crucial building block for forming efficient networks of the future chemical industry, contributing to planetary carbon management and the development of a nonfossil-based chemical industry of the future. Crucially, regulatory barriers to the implementation and scaling of green oxygen utilization need to be addressed.
Held et al. (Fri,) studied this question.