The hype around natural hydrogen, also called “white” or “gold” hydrogen, is gathering global momentum and the United States is set to jump on the bandwagon. Three areas of the US have been identified as viable sites for clean hydrogen extraction. If the deposits under the Earth’s surface are as vast as researchers believe they may be, there’ll be enough renewable hydrogen to mine for decades.
Several countries are in the race to source gold hydrogen deposits, and it’s likely that the nations that reach the market first will dominate the sector in the future. This has hydrogen companies in the United States scrambling to get their extraction projects off the ground—or rather, under the ground—to ensure a top spot among the world’s clean hydrogen suppliers.
Gold hydrogen has massive potential as a low-carbon energy source, and the US has a lot
The kind of hydrogen produced by the natural processes of the Earth over millions of years in underground reservoirs is referred to as “gold” due to its economic and environmental value. It’s considered the best form of hydrogen for these significant reasons.
There are five kinds of hydrogen classified by color (although this is not the actual shade of the hydrogen). “White” hydrogen also occurs naturally, and it’s described as such due to no carbon emissions being produced when it’s extracted. “Green” hydrogen is produced under artificial electrolysis conditions, but using renewable energy. “Blue” hydrogen is produced with natural gases and although it involves carbon emission, carbon capture is applied before it enters the atmosphere.
The kind of hydrogen we definitely don’t want produced is the “gray” form, which is artificially produced using fossil fuels and generates high carbon emissions.
The hydrogen industry is striving to locate gold deposits, and the US has 3 regions of focus
The gold kind is the understandably target of the hydrogen industry, and recent research shows that at least 40 companies are actively investigating natural hydrogen deposits. In 2020, there were only 10. The countries where exploratory endeavors are being undertaken are the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Spain, Colombia, Albania, and South Korea.
There are three sites in the US where two companies are actively exploring hydrogen deposits. The first two are the Nemaha Project in Kansas and Project Geneva in Nebraska, which belong to HyTerra Ltd. The third is McCauley Field in Arizona, which is operated by Desert Mountain Energy Corp.
Nemaha Project, Kansas
The Nemaha hydrogen operation is located along the Nemaha Ridge between Kansas City and Wichita. The underlying geological structure of the ridge is Precambrian granite, a type of rock associated with hydrogen deposits. HyTerra is running exploration programs including magnetic surveys and airborne gravity gradiometry to assess potential hydrogen deposits.
Project Geneva, Nebraska
The project is a joint development agreement with Natural Hydrogen Energy LLC. The project’s scope encompasses the Hoarty well, which is the world’s first wildcat well (targeting an area of no confirmed or known deposits) aiming for natural hydrogen.
McCauley Field, Arizona
McCauley Field is a pioneer in commercial natural hydrogen exploration as well as production. Efforts at the site are ongoing in the pursuit of optimizing operations and it serves as a role model for similar projects being attempted in other regions. Not only are there hydrogen deposits, but helium is also being extracted.
The cost advantages of gold hydrogen are significant
One of the most favorable aspects of gold hydrogen is its cost advantage, which is due to its natural occurrence. Once the costs of exploration and installation have been covered, the profit margin is high.
But it’s not just about the reduced cost of extracting gold hydrogen. Gray hydrogen, which is the kind produced from fossil fuels, costs less than $2 per kilogram on average, which is not expensive. Green hydrogen, however, which is produced with renewable energy, is more than three times more expensive. This means that gray hydrogen remains in demand.
Gold hydrogen could replace gray hydrogen
In terms of shifting to clean, renewable options, the industry needs an alternative to gray hydrogen, and it needs to be cheap. This is where gold hydrogen comes in, as it will present a competitive price and therefore replace the environmentally harmful production of the gray kind.
Gold hydrogen has the potential to be a game-changer for the renewable energy sector and if the US’s exploration efforts come to fruition, the country will be a major player in the fuel supply industry. But hydrogen is not the only energy source that’s being fervently developed in the US. A geothermal research project is taking shape in New York that could also boom into a vast source of natural power.
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