Scientists looking for fossil fuels beneath the ground of northeastern France have discovered large reservoir of hydrogen.
It is one of the largest deposits of “white hydrogen” ever discovered, estimated to be between 6 million and 250 million metric tons of hydrogen.
Key points
- White hydrogen is the industry term for hydrogen that naturally occurs in the layers of the Earth’s crust underground in northeastern France.
- White hydrogen is also referred to as “natural,” “gold” or “geologic” hydrogen.
- White hydrogen doesn’t need to be made – just extracted.
- Studies related to a white hydrogen vent discovered in Mali calculated that white hydrogen production would cost around $1 a kilogram, while green hydrogen costs about $6 a kilogram. White hydrogen is relatively new to scientists.
- In 2018, a well in Mali producing 98% hydrogen gas brought the attention of scientists to the resource. As of now, its deposits have been found across the world, including in the US, eastern Europe, Russia, Australia, France and other countries.
- It is estimated that globally there could be tens of billions of tons of white hydrogen.
- Until recently, scientists believed that mass amounts of Hydrogen could only be produced in labs.
- There were several types of hydrogen categorized by colours on the basis of their origin. For instance, “gray” Hydrogen is made from methane gas, “brown” from coal, “blue” hydrogen is similar to gray but with captured emissions.
- The most eco-friendly hydrogen is “green” hydrogen, which is produced using renewable energy to split water.
