2024-02-22 20:31:34
At the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver, geologists touted the impending, game-changing boom in the extraction of naturally occurring hydrogen. This resource, which is also referred to as “geological hydrogen” by specialists, was not considered practical until now.
Hydrogen can be worth gold
For the first time, the scientists presented the results of a yet-to-be-published study conducted by the US Geological Survey (USGS). These reveal that naturally occurring hydrogen occurs in much greater quantities near the Earth’s surface than previously assumed. According to researchers, the planet has more than 5 trillion tons of hydrogen locked up in underground “pockets”.
“Most of the hydrogen is probably inaccessible, but extraction of a few percent would still satisfy the entire foreseeable demand for hundreds of years – 500 million tons per year” USGS research geologist Geoffrey Ellis told the Financial Times report according to The stockpile went largely unnoticed because scientists previously had only guesses regarding how natural hydrogen is formed and broken down. “We had the right tools, but we weren’t looking for hydrogen resources in the right places” Ellis said.
Better equipped and more enlightened geologists are discovering hydrogen reserves in several places, including a chromite mine in Albania, from which 200 tons can be extracted annually.
Diagram of hydrogen gas trapped under the cap rock in the foothills of the Pyrenees (source: Helios Aragonon)
Today, hydrogen used as a fuel or industrial material is mainly produced by chemical transformation of the gas, which is basically methane. Gray hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels by steam reforming. During the process, the CO2 released into the atmosphere contributes to the greenhouse effect. Blue hydrogen is produced in the same way as gray hydrogen, but the resulting CO2 is captured and permanently stored. With this technology, the CO2 produced during steam reforming is not released into the atmosphere, so this method is also climate neutral.
“Grey hydrogen” accounted for 92% of the hydrogen market by value in 2022. “Green hydrogen”, produced when water molecules are split by electrolysis in a renewable energy-powered process, is still present in trace amounts.
Naturally occurring geological hydrogen is called “golden hydrogen” and geologists say it has a better ecological impact profile than blue or even green hydrogen: electrolysis requires large amounts of electricity.
They knew it existed, but they hadn’t addressed it until now
“The gold rush of gold hydrogen is coming” said Mengli Zhang, an assistant professor at the prestigious Colorado School of Mines. Companies focused on the opportunity include Natural Hydrogen Energy LLC, which drilled America’s first exploratory well in Nebraska, and Koloma, whose investors include Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Both companies are based in Denver. Helios Aragon is a pioneer in the production of golden hydrogen in Europe. Based in Aragon, Spain, the company has licenses covering more than 200,000 hectares in the north of the country.
“Geological hydrogen represents an extraordinary opportunity to produce clean hydrogen in a way that not only has low carbon emissions, but also a low land and water footprint and low energy consumption” Koloma business director Paul Harraka told the Times.
All this sounds great, but it is worth monitoring the experimental production taking place in Europe and other parts of the world to find out if there is a basis for the optimism of geologists.
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