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Plants as examples
Part of the energy problem based on hydrogen (for one) is the efficient splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen.
From PhysOrg.com:
Hydrogen will be one of the most important fuels of the future. It would be ideal to obtain hydrogen by splitting water instead of from petroleum. However, the electrolysis of water is a very energy intensive process, making it both expensive and unsustainable if the electricity necessary to generate it comes from the burning of fossil fuels. Photolysis, the splitting of water by light, is a highly promising alternative.
The basic process of electrolysis is to bring the hydrogen and oxygen ions out of the water as a gas.
The biggest hurdle to overcome in the photocatalytic splitting of water to date has been the lack of a robust catalyst that oxidizes water. In fact, the best known catalyst, which very effectively oxidizes water when irradiated with visible light, is a manganese-containing enzyme in the photosynthetic apparatus of living organisms.
An efficient catalyst could mean an inexpensive way to split water, and possibly "on-demand" splitting, which would be rather handy, as the need for hydrogen storage would be bypassed altogether.
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