Energy · Innovation

Exploration for Naturally Occurring 'White Hydrogen' Accelerates

Interest is growing in 'white hydrogen,' a naturally occurring gas found underground, as a potentially more affordable alternative to green hydrogen produced via electrolysis.

News AutomationCompiled 01:04 UTC · 1 min read

Conceptual illustration of hydrogen molecules forming within the Earth's crust.

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Scientists are increasingly exploring naturally occurring “white hydrogen” as a potentially cheaper alternative to green hydrogen produced through electrolysis.
Recent research in Australia and Canada suggests vast geological formations could continuously generate hydrogen, raising hopes for large-scale commercial extraction.
Exploration is already underway in the U.S. and Canada, although companies still need to prove that geologic hydrogen can be produced economically at commercial scale.

Hydrogen molecules

Scientists and start-ups believe naturally occurring hydrogen could be the next major geological breakthrough, unleashing huge amounts of hydrogen to power the clean energy transition.

Researchers in the United States, Canada, and Australia are mapping and discovering potential sources of so-called geologic hydrogen, or white hydrogen, which would be mined instead of produced from electrolysis using renewable energy, the way the so-called green hydrogen is currently obtained.

Several major discoveries in recent months have raised hopes that mined natural hydrogen from rocks underground could be an alternative to the still costly green hydrogen production, which has failed to live up to the hype in recent years, with a major gap in the planned and actually launched projects amid high costs and struggles to secure offtake deals.

As enthusiasm for green hydrogen has somewhat faded, researchers and mining companies are exploring another hydrogen output avenue—extracting natural hydrogen from rocks underground.

The most recent breakthrough that could lead to a whole new industry was announced in Australia, where scientists found a potentially huge hydrogen source in Western Australia’s iron ore deposits in the Pilbara region.

The study, published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy by researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) School of Engineering, focused on the mineral magnetite, which is found in the iron ore deposits. Related: U.S. Diesel Prices Close In on April War Peak

The researchers experimented by exposing magnetite samples to water at temperatures of 200°C and under high-pressure conditions for 60 days, replicating the environment found deep beneath the Earth's surface. They say they found a way to stimulate hydrogen production by injecting a solution into banded iron formations. This significantly increases the potential to harness this naturally occurring resource.

According to the team, their research provides one of the clearest insights yet into how natural hydrogen forms underground and the conditions needed to sustain production.

“Western Australia has some of the world's largest banded iron formations. If we can unlock this resource at scale, it could be transformative for our energy future,” lead author Kaveh Moghanirahimi said.

The experiment could bridge the gap between laboratory experiments and real-world hydrogen exploration, said Professor Stefan Iglauer from ECU’s School of Engineering.

“Our findings show that hydrogen production depends not only on the amount of magnetite present, but also on how easily water can access fresh mineral surfaces through fractures, pores and permeable pathways,” Professor Iglauer commented.

The Australian study comes shortly after Canadian geochemists at the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa earlier this year found that hydrogen gas is steadily building up within the Canadian Shield among some of the oldest rocks on Earth.

They mapped natural hydrogen concentration and tracked its long-term accumulation at a single location, making it possible to assess potential hydrogen exploration.

“The data from this study suggests there are critical untapped opportunities to access a domestic source of cost-effective energy produced from the rocks beneath our feet,” said the lead author of the study, University Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar in the Department of Earth Sciences in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto.

“Natural hydrogen is produced over time through underground chemical reactions between rocks and the groundwaters in those rocks,” said Sherwood Lollar. “Canada is blessed that vast amounts of its territories, especially on the Canadian Shield, contain the right rocks and minerals to create this natural hydrogen.”

In Canada, local firm Max Power Mining is already exploring for white hydrogen, with the start of drilling of a third validation well to 2,278 meters (7,473 ft) underground at the Lawson Complex in southern Saskatchewan.

Exploration has started in the United States, too.

For example, Australia-listed HyTerra is production testing for white hydrogen at its Nemaha Project in Kansas and is well testing at its Geneva Project in Nebraska.

“Establishing a commercial geologic hydrogen project remains our clear focus,” HyTerra CEO Riley Kemp said last month, commenting on the production testing results at the McCoy-1 well at Nemaha.

Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published the first map of the prospective locations of naturally occurring geologic hydrogen resources in the United States. The map revealed areas of interest that could hold accumulations of geologic hydrogen, including a mid-continent region that covers Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Michigan, the Four Corners states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, the California coast, and areas along the Eastern seaboard.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Tsvetana Paraskova

What I Cover Tsvetana Paraskova is an energy and commodities journalist who has contributed to Oilprice.com for nearly a decade, covering global energy markets, commodities,…

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