Waste Mg alloys hydrogen production from seawater: An integrative overview of medium optimization, hydrogen-producing materials, underlying mechanisms, innovative technologies, and device development

•Both modification strategy and medium regulation are applied.•The hydrolysis process and modification mechanism are thoroughly analyzed.•Focus on waste Mg, seawater resource reuse and circular economy.•Systematic comparison and evaluation of various modification methods. In response to global carbon neutrality targets, there is an urgent need for large-scale, clean hydrogen production technologies to supplant fossil fuels and underpin the establishment of a ‘hydrogen economy’. The prospect of large-scale on-site green hydrolysis of Mg-based materials for hydrogen production has attracted wide attention. Aiming at the problems of easy formation of inert oxide layer on its surface and the production of Mg(OH)2 to hinder the hydrolysis process, it is urgent to explore efficient, low-cost and green modification strategies. In this work, the green modification strategy for hydrolyzing hydrogen production of Mg-based materials was summarized, and the fast initial kinetics and high hydrogen production rate could be achieved by adjusting hydrolysis medium conditions and modifying Mg-based material. The significance of hydrolytic hydrogen production technology and device development for the realization of Mg-based hydrolytic hydrogen production was evaluated. Meanwhile, this work looks forward to the future direction of hydrogen production modification by hydrolysis of Mg-based alloy, and gradually optimizes the hydrolysis performance of industrial multi-component waste Mg alloy under the premise of green hydrogen production, and proposes the goal of efficient modification of waste Mg alloy, high-quality utilization of seawater, and low-cost and controllable hydrogen production process. [Display omitted]