RE: Golden Hydrogen9 Feb 2024 15:55
Interesting piece from SCIENCE BUSINESS 6th Jan 2022
Hydrogen could be taken straight from the ground to supplement hydrogen derived from fossil fuels and renewables, according to scientists researching this underexplored alternative.
Natural, or white, hydrogen is continuously produced in the earth’s crust, and scientists are now discovering there’s much more of it stored underground than previously thought.
It’s a renewable resource that can be captured by simply drilling a well. One such pool was found in Mali in the 1980s, but it took decades before someone proposed to extract the gas. Today, the well gives out 98% pure hydrogen and has not recorded any decrease in production since extraction started in 2012.
“The real challenge now is to find places in the world where the flux is high enough and the concentration is high enough,” said Nick Arndt, emeritus professor of geochemistry at the Grenoble Alpes University. “So currently, [scientists] are looking in places in the world where we know that there is a flux of hydrogen.”
Industry is ready to hop on the natural hydrogen train too. The French energy company Engie has been exploring the potential of natural hydrogen since 2016. It started off with projects in Brazil, where the company developed sensors to monitor the flux of hydrogen in specific areas, and has since expanded to other areas in the world.
Now, competition is picking up as start-ups and bigger companies turn to natural hydrogen, rushing to get licenses to explore its potential. “There is a lot of competition. We saw that in the South Australia state when they opened the mining rights to natural hydrogen exploration,” said Olivier Lhote, special adviser on hydrogen at Engie.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
