The Biden Administration’s push to expand U.S. production of carbon-free energy to help fight climate change now includes a grant program aimed at helping a promising new clean power initiative: drilling for natural “geologic” hydrogen.
The Energy Department said Thursday it’s establishing a $20 million fund to help companies and researchers find low-cost, sustainable ways to extract underground hydrogen and to stimulate that natural process that creates the energy-rich element. Ambitious startups including Koloma, backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Australia’s HyTerra and Natural Hydrogen Energy are already drilling test wells in Midwestern states including Kansas and Nebraska that could be the first commercial sources of the fuel.
“When it comes to geologic hydrogen, we’re asking ‘Are there disruptive ways to access this hydrogen source and explore the potential?’” ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang said in an emailed statement. “There is a significant opportunity to accelerate the development of hydrogen production.”
Hydrogen’s flexibility as an energy source — it can power vehicles, store or make electricity and be used to cut carbon emissions from steel, fertilizer and ammonia production — makes it a compelling clean fuel. But extracting it from water and other non-fossil fuel sources remains costly. Geologic hydrogen is particularly attractive because it would be the lowest-cost form of the fuel and utilizes drilling techniques long mastered by the oil and gas industry.
(For more, see Bill Gates Is Backing A Secret Startup Drilling For Limitless Clean Energy)
Unlike oil and gas deposits, which are both dirty and finite, geologic hydrogen is generated continuously. There are different theories as to how it’s created, but the prevailing one is that it’s a byproduct of a continuous chemical reaction of heat and water mixing with iron in an oxidation state. It’s often found near faultlines such as the Midcontinent Rift running through the central U.S and initial estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey suggest it’s highly abundant.
Globally, the amount of geologic hydrogen may be “astronomical” based on how common the conditions needed to generate it appear to be, Doug Wicks, a program director for ARPA-E, told Forbes earlier this year. He estimated it could be as much as 150 million metric tons.
“Koloma believes in a future energy economy where geologic hydrogen is a key enabler of decarbonization,” Pete Johnson, the Denver-based company’s cofounder and CEO, told Forbes. “We’re grateful DOE also recognizes the potential here and are excited about the potential to collaborate on this transformational resource development.”
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