Significant volumes of natural hydrogen could be sitting in the subsurface waiting to be extracted at lower costs than even the most competitive electrolytic or natural gas-based  projects currently under development. Or, in hydrogen sector parlance, gold could be better than green or blue.

That is the claim of a growing number of companies exploring for natural (gold) hydrogen around the world with an eye on developing supply to feed the global decarbonisation project. Production at under $1/kg has been mooted, though that should be seen in the context of the cost of exploration and drilling, which makes direct comparisons with green hydrogen costs difficult.

At least six projects are at the proposal stage—spanning North America, Australia, France and Mali, according to Gulf Energy Information’s Global Energy Infrastructure hydrogen project database. Pilot production in Mali has been underway for several years.

Excitement over the potential of gold hydrogen has been building for some time

A recent discovery in the Lorraine Mining Basin in France has sent ripples through the industry in Europe, where green production targets set by policymakers are starting to look challenging, and the need to secure imports to meet local demand is becoming urgent.

French company FDE said it found 98% pure hydrogen at a depth of 3,000m. It has submitted an application for an exclusive exploration permit covering 2,254km² in the Grand-Est region.

“The fluids of the carboniferous formations of the Lorraine Mining Basin are very significantly enriched in hydrogen,” said Philippe de Donato and Jacques Pironon, research directors at France’s GeoRessources Laboratory, on announcing the find in May.

Excitement over the potential of gold hydrogen has been building for some time, and inevitably some very bold predictions have been made. One former TotalEnergies geochemist has even drawn parallels between Mali’s gold hydrogen discovery and Drake’s first oil strike in 1859.

Wait and see

Coincidentally, TotalEnergies is one of the few big oil companies to publicly support the gold hydrogen search by joining the France-based EartH2 initiative. US oil services company SLB is also a member.

Otherwise, big oil appears largely happy to adopt a wait-and-see approach, letting independent explorers carry out the search while it forges ahead with green and blue projects.

Policymakers have also yet to join the gold rush with much gusto, although the South Australian government, the first authority to grant exploration licences for natural hydrogen, has now received 40 applications.

Geologists point out that seepages of natural hydrogen are widespread throughout the world, but that does not necessarily translate to successful production via drilling. Gold hydrogen production at scale also effectively takes the industry into a mining arena, with all the sustainability issues that come with that.

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Author: Stuart Penson