4,000 Feet Below the Surface, a Massive Store of Hydrogen Could Spark the Green Energy Revolution - The Messenger

4,000 Feet Below the Surface, a Massive Store of Hydrogen Could Spark the Green Energy Revolution - The Messenger
Adam Kovac

A previously undiscovered deposit of naturally occurring hydrogen in France could unlock a new source of clean energy. The discovery was made by two scientists who — somewhat ironically — were searching for fossil fuel deposits in the Lorraine mining basin in France.

Using a special probe, the scientists estimate that between 6 million and 250 million metric tons of "white" hydrogen, the name given to naturally occurring hydrogen, could lie beneath the surface in France about 1.2 kilometers down.

The reason why this discovery matters to clean energy is because hydrogen fuel is long-lasting, powerful and, because it is combined with oxygen, its waste product is water, rather than traditional fuels' toxic waste products and fumes. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced $7 billion in funding for "clean hydrogen hubs," part of a major initiative to promote clean energy investment.

Yet unlike fossil fuels or renewables, like solar, hydrogen doesn't typically come in a relatively ready-to-use form. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but it’s most commonly found bonded with other atoms to form molecules like water or methane. Isolating the hydrogen found in those more complex materials is an energy intensive process and can result in toxic byproducts.

That's if any one can get down to it, of course.

It's possible that the hydrogen is so far underground as to be largely unaccessible, according to scientists speaking to CNN.

But that hasn’t stopped a number of startups from starting to drill around the world. Australia’s Gold Hydrogen has found a number of likely spots and hopes to begin producing white hydrogen in 2024 while Denver’s Natural Hydrogen Energy told CNN that the company is close to starting commercial operations.

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