Large find of natural hydrogen in mine in Albania
Scientists and companies are looking all over the world to find natural hydrogen, so-called white hydrogen, to be used as a clean fuel. White hydrogen is hydrogen that occurs naturally in gaseous form in deposits in the bedrock.
Now, a group of researchers at the French University of Grenoble Alpes has been able to measure one of the largest flows of natural hydrogen ever reported, New Scientist reports. The find was made deep in a chromite mine in Bulqiza, Albania.
– The bubbling is very, very intense, it’s like in a jacuzzi, says researcher Laurent Truche to New Scientist.
Looks promising for places with similar geology
In search of more tangible evidence, Truche and his colleagues descended into the Bulqizë chromite mine in Albania, where hydrogen gas seeped out of the rocks and caused several explosions. The gas that bubbles up consists of more than 80 percent hydrogen, with an admixture of methane and a little nitrogen. The researchers estimate that the flow corresponds to 11 tons of hydrogen gas per year, and that the gas comes from a deeper reservoir that at least holds 5,000 to 50,000 tons of hydrogen gas.
In comparison to the Hybrit project, where LKAB estimates that they will need to produce over one million tons of hydrogen, the find in the mine is modest. But the French researchers believe that places with similar geology – within an exposure of iron-rich rock, so-called ophiolite – could be interesting sources of natural hydrogen.
Read the published findings from the researchers in the magazine New Scientist.
