The next big thing in hydrogen could be underground

Key Highlights

• The planet’s crust was stretched and split there about a billion years ago, causing molten rock to push up through the crack.
• HyTerra, an Australian company, is searching for hydrogen across Nebraska and Kansas, and it’s already found samples of gas with hydrogen concentrations up to 96%.
• Koloma, one of the most capitalized companies in the space with total funding over $400 million, is prospecting in the region as well.
• If you’d asked me a few years ago, I would have said the race for clean hydrogen was between methods that use electrolyzers powered with renewable electricity and operations that use established, fossil-fuel-based approaches cleaned up with carbon capture.
• In a new story for our latest print issue, freelance reporter James Dineen took a look at the 21st-century gold rush for naturally occurring hydrogen gas.

In a new story for our latest print issue, freelance reporter James Dineen took a look at the 21st-century gold rush for naturally occurring hydrogen gas.

This is an area of research I’ve been fascinated by lately, so let’s take a look at the potential and the questions that still linger.

Today, hydrogen is overwhelmingly made using fossil fuels, generally natural gas.

And most of it is used in petroleum refining or goes on to make fertilizer and other chemicals.

But in recent years, many in the climate world have imagined a future where its production is clean too.

If you’d asked me a few years ago, I would have said the race for clean hydrogen was between methods that use electrolyzers powered with renewable electricity and operations that use established, fossil-fuel-based approaches cleaned up with carbon capture.

But both those methods have struggled to gain ground, largely because of their high cost.

Lately, there’s been momentum in a new field: geologic hydrogen.

Companies have found naturally occurring hydrogen resources across Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America.

The US Geological Survey publishes a map of hydrogen prospectivity in the country (basically, where the gas is most likely to occur naturally).

One hot spot is the Midwest--specifically the Midcontinent Rift, winding from Kansas to Michigan.

The planet’s crust was stretched and split there about a billion years ago, causing molten rock to push up through the crack.

The result today is a lot of iron-rich rock, which can react with water to readily form hydrogen.

HyTerra, an Australian company, is searching for hydrogen across Nebraska and Kansas, and it’s already found samples of gas with hydrogen concentrations up to 96%.

Koloma, one of the most capitalized companies in the space with total funding over $400 million, is prospecting in the region as well.

One of the major questions these companies have is just how much hydrogen is produced by natural processes, and whether it can be effectively captured.

Hydrogen is an incredibly light gas with a small molecular weight, so it can slip through even tiny cracks in rock.

As James covered in his story, there are some promising signs.

Rather than hunt for a natural source, some companies are taking matters into their own hands and helping reactions along. The idea behind so-called stimulated geologic hydrogen is to find a spot where there are favorable conditions for hydrogen production but no accumulated resource. By adding water, a catalyst, or some other factor needed for the reaction, it’s possible to kick-start the process.

Vema Hydrogen is a Texas-based company looking to produce hydrogen from subsurface rocks by drilling wells and injecting water and catalysts into them to stimulate reactions. The company is testing its process in wells in Quebec and hopes to start full-scale production in 2028.