Over the past decade, global warming has achieved new records. Unfortunately, these records are not worth celebrating, as the planet’s all-time-high temperatures are aggravating the effects of climate change as we speak. Sustainable solutions are needed, and 6 trillion tons of hydrogen might just be the answer to our problems. This amount may seem too good to be true, but it’s out there, and experts from the UK and Canada now know where to begin the search.
The search for sustainable solutions to combat climate change
The biggest culprit contributing to climate change is the production of energy by burning fossil fuels. However, finding a 100% sustainable solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels is no easy feat. While renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydro energy are all beneficial to the transition away from fossil fuel burning, their sustainability levels vary due to their:
- Production
- Installation
- Disposal
They are also not adequate to decarbonize carbon-heavy sectors, but a truly adequate resource is hydrogen. More specifically, natural or white hydrogen. One of the greatest challenges researchers face is searching for this natural resource. It has been determined that nearly 6 trillion tons of hydrogen are out there in the world, but pinpointing the exact location is difficult. Now, all of that is about to change.
6 trillion tons of hydrogen are out there
Natural or white hydrogen does not happen overnight. According to the University of Oxford website, it took one billion years for Earth’s continental crust to generate enough hydrogen gas to meet our energy demands. Fortunately, while some of this generated gas has been used, lost, or has become inaccessible, it is still enough to last us approximately 170,000 years. That is a long time to benefit from this natural, zero-emission source.
Researchers have been searching everywhere for deposits of this valuable resource, including the Spanish Pyrenees, which has enough deposits to power an entire continent. However, most of these deposit discoveries happen by accident, such as when trace amounts of gas are found in leaks.
Experts from the University of Oxford, the University of Toronto, and Durham University have collaborated to create a solution as to where to begin the search.
Experts from the UK and Canada know where to begin the search
The research published in their study highlights a certain strategy similar to finding helium, which can be used in the search for hydrogen. The co-author of the study from Durham University, Jon Gluyas, commented that:
“We have successfully developed an exploration strategy for helium and a similar ‘first principles’ approach can be taken for hydrogen.”
According to their research, one can determine where to begin the search by determining the following factors:
- The amount of produced hydrogen
- The type of rock formations
- The production conditions
- The underground migration of hydrogen from the rock formations
- Gas formation conditions
- Gas destruction conditions
The lead author of the study, Professor Chris Ballentine from the University of Oxford’s Department of Earth Sciences, believes that these factors must be followed in the same way one would follow a recipe to “cook a soufflé.” If any of the factors, their amounts, the timing, or temperatures are incorrect, the results will be disappointing.
Simply put, you don’t have to be a Michelin-starred chef to follow a recipe and create something spectacular. Similarly, having a “recipe” to commence the search for hydrogen will make the quest much simpler. And by using the correct “ingredients,” or in this case, the outlined factors, you will be led to something spectacular. These experts even formed an exploration company called Snowfox Discovery Ltd, with the mission to find natural hydrogen deposits. France is also in search of this resource and has discovered a 46-million-ton deposit hidden underneath all along.
If you want to learn more about this invention, you can check the full paper here: Ballentine, C.J., Karolytė, R., Cheng, A. et al. Natural hydrogen resource accumulation in the continental crust. Nat Rev Earth Environ 6, 342–356 (2025).
