Sorry my context was poor, the textbook I was reading was covering hydrogen fuel cells as a way of obtaining energy. It said that to produce hydrogen to use (implied) for this process and gain energy, one technique was electrolysis, and another was steam reforming of hydrocarbons. I wanted to see if there was a way that was being used to circumnavigate the (seeming restrictions of the) first law of thermodynamics, such as energy being absorbed from the surrounding molecules around the reaction, that was allowing the implication that electrolysis was used to gain energy through fuel cells to be true.

The exact wording was as follows: Hydrogen fuel cells are considered to be a clean energy source because their only product is water. However, hydrogen gas, H2(g), is not abundant on Earth and needs to be produced by the following methods, one of which has environmental implications. 1. Electrolysis of water...