Released March 15, 2023 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by Paul Wiseman for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Today, hydrogen is to energy what Justin Bieber was to pop music in a previous decade--it's what everyone is talking about. Funding from governments and the private sector is flooding in, including an announcement from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in December about the release of $750 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Act funds to boost clean hydrogen technologies.
So as demand rises, especially for transportation and in "hard-to-decarbonize industries," environmentally friendly supply struggles to keep up.
A tiny but growing segment of scientists believes there's enough naturally occurring hydrogen in the ground to more than meet the demand. For that to happen, there will clearly need to be advances in locating and retrieving such supplies.
Viacheslav Zgonnick is founder and president of Natural Hydrogen Energy LLC, headquartered in Colorado. The company has drilled one exploratory well in Nebraska, with the goal of proving natural hydrogen's worth. While they're still some distance from the goal, Zgonnick is hopeful of attracting investors who remain skeptical of the whole idea.
Of the concept, he's totally sold. "When you think about white hydrogen, you don't need any input of energy to get it, unlike any other types of hydrogen, because it's a primary source of energy," he says. And there is no need for costly infrastructure and processing to "make" white hydrogen, unlike with blue (from natural gas with carbon capture), pink (using nuclear energy to break hydrogen from water molecules), yellow (using solar energy to break hydrogen from water molecules), etc. He says any extra gases contained in natural hydrogen can be easily and cost-effectively separated. Some common ones, like helium, can be sold separately.
Zgonnick cited estimates postulating that extraction costs for natural hydrogen would be about $1 per kilogram, the number set by the DOE for hydrogen to compete economically with fossil fuels. That is about half the cost for the current market supply leader, grey hydrogen (steam reformation from natural gas without carbon capture). The total price for grey hydrogen includes the cost of its feedstock natural gas, and the processing costs.
So How Much White Hydrogen is There?
The short answer is that nobody really knows, because until recently, nobody was looking for it. Its "accidental" find in Mali in 1987, came about because a worker lit a cigarette over what he though was an air breeze blowing out of a failed water well shaft. He lived, fortunately, both physically and in white hydrogen history. For related information, see February 27, 2023, article - Hydrogen from Natural Sources? 'White' Hydrogen Lurks Under the Ground and Under the Radar.
Zgonnick says the estimates of supplies have grown "by an order of magnitude every decade" since the late 1990s, although scientists have documented hydrogen seeps for more than 100 years. His current estimate of available supply is 23 million tons per year--cautioning that this is likely to increase greatly with further exploration.
Because it is odorless, colorless and flammable like natural gas, hydrogen differs in that it dissipates quickly, making it less likely to explode when it escapes the earth or storage. So it's harder to detect unless someone is testing specifically for hydrogen--or there is the rare concentration such as in Mali.
Here again, Zgonnick is optimistic. "I believe natural hydrogen has the potential to become a significant, if not the main source of energy in the future."
How Is It Formed?
It's the ultimate in renewable, he noted, comparing it in that aspect to geothermal energy, which is also abundant under the earth. The main mechanism for forming recoverable amounts of white hydrogen "involves the reaction of water with iron-rich rocks. The reaction is called serpentinization." In this process the water oxidizes the iron-containing rocks. The byproduct of that reaction is hydrogen.
There are others, but most are too small to create significant supply. All of them, however, are ongoing. In theory, the supply of natural hydrogen would never run out, unlike the finite availability of fossil fuels.
Energy Transition
Oil and gas companies looking to transition would find this a natural, Zgonnick believes. They're already expert at drilling deep into the earth's crust and extracting a flammable gas.
End Use
Depending on where hydrogen is found, Zgonnick believes transportation issues could be solved by using it on the spot, especially for hard-to-decarbonize industries. A plant could be built nearby, accessing the hydrogen through a short pipeline.
In vehicles, he sees fuel cells as the most efficient use, pointing out that internal combustion engines can never harness more than 40% of the available energy. Fuel cells can reach 80%, while gas turbines fall somewhere in between. To be used in a fuel cell, hydrogen must be 99.99% pure, a level which Zgonnick says can be reached economically through processing.
The practical future depends on the availability of economically viable supplies. And, as Zgonnick noted, until his or another pilot project demonstrates that kind of result, investors will remain hesitant to give it a boost.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
So as demand rises, especially for transportation and in "hard-to-decarbonize industries," environmentally friendly supply struggles to keep up.
A tiny but growing segment of scientists believes there's enough naturally occurring hydrogen in the ground to more than meet the demand. For that to happen, there will clearly need to be advances in locating and retrieving such supplies.
Viacheslav Zgonnick is founder and president of Natural Hydrogen Energy LLC, headquartered in Colorado. The company has drilled one exploratory well in Nebraska, with the goal of proving natural hydrogen's worth. While they're still some distance from the goal, Zgonnick is hopeful of attracting investors who remain skeptical of the whole idea.
Of the concept, he's totally sold. "When you think about white hydrogen, you don't need any input of energy to get it, unlike any other types of hydrogen, because it's a primary source of energy," he says. And there is no need for costly infrastructure and processing to "make" white hydrogen, unlike with blue (from natural gas with carbon capture), pink (using nuclear energy to break hydrogen from water molecules), yellow (using solar energy to break hydrogen from water molecules), etc. He says any extra gases contained in natural hydrogen can be easily and cost-effectively separated. Some common ones, like helium, can be sold separately.
Zgonnick cited estimates postulating that extraction costs for natural hydrogen would be about $1 per kilogram, the number set by the DOE for hydrogen to compete economically with fossil fuels. That is about half the cost for the current market supply leader, grey hydrogen (steam reformation from natural gas without carbon capture). The total price for grey hydrogen includes the cost of its feedstock natural gas, and the processing costs.
So How Much White Hydrogen is There?
The short answer is that nobody really knows, because until recently, nobody was looking for it. Its "accidental" find in Mali in 1987, came about because a worker lit a cigarette over what he though was an air breeze blowing out of a failed water well shaft. He lived, fortunately, both physically and in white hydrogen history. For related information, see February 27, 2023, article - Hydrogen from Natural Sources? 'White' Hydrogen Lurks Under the Ground and Under the Radar.
Zgonnick says the estimates of supplies have grown "by an order of magnitude every decade" since the late 1990s, although scientists have documented hydrogen seeps for more than 100 years. His current estimate of available supply is 23 million tons per year--cautioning that this is likely to increase greatly with further exploration.
Because it is odorless, colorless and flammable like natural gas, hydrogen differs in that it dissipates quickly, making it less likely to explode when it escapes the earth or storage. So it's harder to detect unless someone is testing specifically for hydrogen--or there is the rare concentration such as in Mali.
Here again, Zgonnick is optimistic. "I believe natural hydrogen has the potential to become a significant, if not the main source of energy in the future."
How Is It Formed?
It's the ultimate in renewable, he noted, comparing it in that aspect to geothermal energy, which is also abundant under the earth. The main mechanism for forming recoverable amounts of white hydrogen "involves the reaction of water with iron-rich rocks. The reaction is called serpentinization." In this process the water oxidizes the iron-containing rocks. The byproduct of that reaction is hydrogen.
There are others, but most are too small to create significant supply. All of them, however, are ongoing. In theory, the supply of natural hydrogen would never run out, unlike the finite availability of fossil fuels.
Energy Transition
Oil and gas companies looking to transition would find this a natural, Zgonnick believes. They're already expert at drilling deep into the earth's crust and extracting a flammable gas.
End Use
Depending on where hydrogen is found, Zgonnick believes transportation issues could be solved by using it on the spot, especially for hard-to-decarbonize industries. A plant could be built nearby, accessing the hydrogen through a short pipeline.
In vehicles, he sees fuel cells as the most efficient use, pointing out that internal combustion engines can never harness more than 40% of the available energy. Fuel cells can reach 80%, while gas turbines fall somewhere in between. To be used in a fuel cell, hydrogen must be 99.99% pure, a level which Zgonnick says can be reached economically through processing.
The practical future depends on the availability of economically viable supplies. And, as Zgonnick noted, until his or another pilot project demonstrates that kind of result, investors will remain hesitant to give it a boost.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
