Hydrogen is widely recognized as clean energy. It can be stored and transported conveniently,utilized in multiple ways and efficiently,and also has rich resources,which makes it a real help for resolving energy crisis,environment pollution and global warming. At present,hydrogen is classified as an important part of the national energy structure in some developed countries. In China,enormous investments have been made in research and industrialization associated with hydrogen. In this paper,hydrogen applications in energy and chemical sectors are considered and the utilization of hydrogen in China and abroad is presented. Hydrogen is used in fuel-cell vehicles, distributed power generation,fuel-cell forklifts and emergency power supplies as clean energy. It is used in renewable energy consumption as energy carrier and in oil upgrading and clean coal as feedstock. The use as clean energy is the primary way to promote hydrogen development and the use as energy carrier can contribute to coordinated development of renewable energy and hydrogen. Under current conditions,the use as feedstock is a promising way to achieve large-scale utilization of hydrogen. Besides,the production,storage and transportation of hydrogen and fuel cell technology are still the barriers which restrict hydrogen development.