Processes, methods, systems and devices for zero emission liquid hydrogen production directly from a variety of methane sources, such as natural gas and landfill gas, are disclosed. Five embodiments of plant designs for liquid hydrogen production are presented. The embodiments combine hydrogen production and liquefaction into a single process to produce liquid hydrogen directly via methane containing gases; thus, eliminating the conventional technology of pressure swing adsorption process for gas mixture separation. The innovative process can be applied to produce high purity liquid hydrogen with no carbon dioxide emission to the atmosphere; and can also co-produce highly pure solid carbon and liquid carbon dioxide as by-products for industrial application. The invention has provided advantages over conventional approaches that result in up to approximately 85% of first low efficiencies and approximately 56% of second law efficiency, up to approximately 100% of hydrogen and methane recovery, and a very high purity of liquid hydrogen (99.9999%).