Natural Hydrogen – It Could Be a Vast Source of Clean Energy, Buried Deep Underground – NY Times.
In the rocky soil of Lorraine, a former coal mining region near the French-German border, scientists guided a small probe one recent day down a borehole half a mile into the earth’s crust.
Frothing in the water table below was an exciting find: champagne-size bubbles that signaled a potentially mammoth cache of so-called white hydrogen, one of the cleanest-burning fuels in nature.
Jacques Pironon, scientists, a senior researcher and professor at the University of Lorraine, said:
Hydrogen is magical — when you burn it you release water, so there are no carbon emissions to warm the planet.
“We think we’ve uncovered one of the largest deposits of natural hydrogen anywhere in the world.”
The discovery by Mr. Pironon and another scientist, Philippe de Donato, both members of France’s respected National Center for Scientific Research, caused a sensation in France, where the government has vowed to become a European leader in clean hydrogen.
There are still many questions about the find, including exactly how big it is and how best to extract the gas. But it has added to a trail of clues elsewhere in the world that a holy grail of clean energy may be lying in the earth for the taking.
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Natural Hydrogen – It Could Be a Vast Source of Clean Energy, Buried Deep Underground – NY Times. source
