Two scientists in France recently discovered what may be the largest known deposit of a clean energy resource that could revolutionize our world, CNN reported. Scientists Jacques Pironon and Phillipe De Donato, who were actually looking for fossil fuels beneath the ground of northeastern France, accidentally discovered a significant deposit of white hydrogen. They found a 20% higher concentration of hydrogen at 1,250 meters below the ground and estimated that the deposit could contain between 6 million and 250 million metric tons of hydrogen.
Notably, white hydrogen is naturally produced in the Earth’s crust and is considered a potential clean energy. Unlike other forms of hydrogen, white hydrogen only produces water when it is burned, making it an exceptionally clean energy source with enormous potential. It has been named ‘white’ since the “production doesn’t generate greenhouse gases.”
White hydrogen can be used as a cleaner alternative in various applications, such as fuel cells for vehicles or industrial processes.
The discovery is all the more significant because scientists thought mass amounts could only be produced in a laboratory. Other forms of the gas like green hydrogen and gray hydrogen are produced in the lab through electrolysis. As per CNN, the price of this gas will be cheaper and it can be a replacement for conventional fuels.
”If you had asked me four years ago what I thought about natural hydrogen, I would have told you ‘Oh, it doesn’t exist. Hydrogen’s out there, we know it’s around,” said Geoffrey Ellis, a geochemist with the US Geological Survey.
Geochemist Viacheslav Zgonnik told CNN that it could help us “get to speed” on saving the world from the climate crisis.
White hydrogen deposits have also been discovered in places like Russia, Oman, France, Mali, and others. Experts estimate globally there could be tens of billions of tons of white hydrogen.
”Most of this is almost certainly going to be in very small accumulations or very far offshore, or just too deep to actually be economic to produce. But if just 1% can be found and produced, it would provide 500 million tons of hydrogen for 200 years,” Mr Ellis said.
Several start-ups are already exploring how to commercialize white hydrogen. However, the development of the resource might take around 200 years.
There are other issues like regulatory barriers and production costs. The estimated production cost of white hydrogen is currently around $1 per kilogram, compared to $6 per kilogram for green hydrogen.
