Vast Reserves of White Hydrogen Discovered | Renewable Energy Breakthrough | CNN News

 From CNN - Laura Paddison 

Large reserves of white hydrogen may exist within mountain ranges, according to a new study, raising hopes this clean-burning gas can be extracted and supercharge efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

White hydrogen has recently gained attention for its potential to help replace planet-heating fossil fuels. It was only a couple decades ago that some scientists started saying this powerful fuel — also called “natural” or “geologic” hydrogen — existed within the Earth’s crust in large amounts.

Since then, geologists have pored over how it forms and where it might be located. The main problem has been working out where to find volumes large enough to be useful for humanity’s insatiable energy appetite.

To find answers, a team of scientists used computer models to simulate the movement of the planet’s tectonic plates and pinpoint regions where the right conditions exist for generating white hydrogen. They found mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees and the European Alps are potential hotspots, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

Hydrogen, which produces only water when burned, has long been eyed as a green fuel, especially for energy-hungry industries like aviation and steel-making. But most commercial hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels, defeating its climate-saving powers.

That’s why white hydrogen is such a tantalizing prospect.

Interest can arguably be traced back to the accidental discovery of white hydrogen in Mali in 1987, when a water well exploded as a worker leaned over the edge with a cigarette. The well was swiftly covered but was unplugged in 2011 and has since been producing hydrogen to help power a local village.

White hydrogen has been found in the US, Australia and France, among other places, but the issue had been finding large amounts.

“We have known that nature produces hydrogen, but it has never really been explored as an option for energy production,” said Frank Zwaan, a study author and geologist at the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Germany. Other energy sources were easier to access, he said, but the escalating climate crisis is amping up the race to find alternatives.

The gas forms naturally through many processes, including radioactive decay in the crust. But Zwaan’s team focused on “serpentization,” where water interacts with iron-rich rocks from the Earth’s mantle to produce hydrogen.

These rocks are normally deep within the Earth where water isn’t readily available, but geological processes over millions of years can push them toward the surface. It happens under the oceans as continents break apart allowing mantle rocks to rise, and also when continents collide, closing ocean basins and forcing mantle rocks upward.

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