Billions of tons of hydrogen are believed to be hidden beneath the Earth’s surface. This reserve could end our dependence on fossil fuels.
Accessibility and use of energy is at the heart of contemporary issues. At a time when around 80% of our resources depend on non-renewable energies, solutions are being proposed to go “green” quickly. Among them is the transition to hydrogen, favored by the European Commission, which expected 20 million tonnes of carbon-free hydrogen by 2030 for the EU, production and import combined. Since then, however, the European Court of Auditors has deplored a lack of “rigorous analysis”, deeming this objective “unrealistic”.
For good reason, there are several types of hydrogen, carbon, low carbon and renewable. The latter is of particular interest to investors, but it is more difficult to obtain. Indeed, according to the International Energy Agency (IAE), its production would be operational at the earliest in 2030. Despite everything, hydrogen remains an excellent solution for storage and redistribution on demand.
This clean energy source can power vehicles and even produce electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions. In view of these advantages, scientists have wondered where these hydrogen reserves are stored.
Their research suggests that there are 6.2 trillion tonnes of hydrogen in underground rocks and reservoirs, 26 times more than the known amount of oil in the ground. However, the location of these hydrogen reserves still remains precisely unknown. But with just 2% of the stocks discovered, there would be enough hydrogen “to achieve carbon neutrality for hundreds of years,” Geoffrey Ellis, a petroleum geochemist at the US Geological Survey (USGS) and author, told Live Science. principal of the new study.
All this despite reduced accessibility conditions and reserves that are too narrow to be extracted effectively. The results also indicate that there would be a level of hydrogen so significant that it would meet the needs of the population of the entire planet.
Indeed, the energy released by this quantity of hydrogen would be approximately twice the energy stored in all known natural gas reserves on Earth. A stunning discovery for these researchers who only recently discovered that hydrogen was accumulating under the Earth’s surface.
