Researchers from three prestigious universities — Durham, Oxford, and Toronto — have published a new scientific paper offering guidance for exploring underground hydrogen deposits, claiming that the planet’s reserves could, in theory, meet all energy needs for many years to come — to such an extent that the figure cited might seem like fanciful exaggeration if repeated. (See: Ballentine, et. al. “Natural hydrogen resource accumulation in the continental crust,” Nature Reviews Earth & Environment).
While we don’t know if these professors are right, any article quoting numbers of this magnitude is bound to attract attention.
In the meantime, money continues to pour into the sector — though not necessarily from the major players in traditional oil. We previously noted that Australian mining giant Fortescue acquired a major stake in an Australian company drilling in the U.S. Midwest. Results from those wells are expected this summer.
Now, three major Japanese firms — Toyota, Mitsubishi, and ENEOS Xplora (an oil company) — have invested in an Australian company with promising prospects within Australia, with drilling likely to begin later this year.
We should also not forget the recent discovery in France of what is being promoted as the world’s largest natural hydrogen field. The French government has issued permits to several companies, including a subsidiary of the French utility giant Engie. Given the scale of the discovery and the strength of the players involved, the activity underway in France may well be the spark that propels this industry forward.
Could France become the world’s top hydrogen supplier?
All of this exploratory activity comes at a critical moment for hydrogen advocates. Producing hydrogen using renewable energy remains expensive. The massive plants President Trump is trying to shut down are doing exactly this — and they require substantial government support to kickstart the “green hydrogen” sector as a sustainable energy source.
In contrast, natural hydrogen may be price-competitive — without needing subsidies — so why pay more for the same green fuel?
There would be no need for all the infrastructure and equipment involved in industrial hydrogen production.
However, the question of infrastructure still looms: how will the hydrogen be transported, and in what form? But that may be a matter for later — once we know where these natural deposits are and how widespread they are geographically.
Could mountains lead us into the age of natural hydrogen?
A new study identifies promising zones for natural hydrogen discovery through tectonic plate modeling
Developing geologically sustainable energy resources is one of the major challenges for humanity in the 21st century. Hydrogen gas (H₂) holds enormous potential to replace today’s fossil fuels while eliminating CO₂ emissions and other associated pollutants.
But the key hurdle is that hydrogen must first be produced — and current industrial hydrogen production, even when sometimes powered by renewable sources, can still be polluting if based on fossil energy.
The solution may lie in nature itself, as various geological processes can generate natural hydrogen. However, until now, it has remained unclear where to search for potentially large underground accumulations of this gas.
A research team led by Dr. Frank Zwaan of the Geodynamic Modeling section at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Germany now offers a promising answer to this question.
Using tectonic plate modeling, the team discovered that mountain ranges containing rocks from deep within the Earth’s mantle close to the surface may represent potential “hotspots” for natural hydrogen. These ranges may not only offer ideal environments for large-scale natural hydrogen generation, but also allow for significant accumulations that could be extracted through drilling.
The findings were published in Science Advances. The team included Prof. Sascha Brune and Dr. Anne Glerum from the same department, as well as scientists from Tufts University (Dr. Dylan Vessey), New Mexico Tech (Dr. John Naliboff), the University of Strasbourg (Prof. Gianreto Manatschal), and the company Lavoisier H2 Geoconsult (Dr. Eric C. Gaucher).
The potential of natural hydrogen in tectonic environments
Natural hydrogen can be generated in several ways, including bacterial decomposition of organic matter or the breakdown of water molecules caused by radioactive decay in the Earth’s continental crust. As a result, occurrences of natural hydrogen have been reported in various locations around the world.
The viability of natural hydrogen as an energy source has been demonstrated in Mali, where small amounts are extracted from iron-rich sedimentary layers via drilled wells.
But the most significant and promising mechanism for large-scale hydrogen generation is the reaction of mantle rocks with water — a process known as serpentinization — in which the mineral composition transforms into serpentine minerals while producing H₂ gas.
These rocks are typically located deep beneath the Earth’s crust, so tectonic uplift is needed to bring them closer to the surface to interact with water.
This phenomenon generally occurs in two tectonic settings: ocean basins that form when continents split apart, allowing mantle rocks to rise as the crust thins — as in the Atlantic Ocean — and mountain ranges that form when continents collide again — as in the Alps or the Pyrenees — pushing mantle rocks upward.
Numerical modeling to pinpoint natural hydrogen zones
To better understand these tectonic environments, the GFZ team employed advanced numerical plate modeling to simulate plate evolution from initial continental rifting to full mountain formation.
In these simulations, the researchers were able to identify — for the first time — when, where, and in what volumes mantle rocks rise to the surface, and under what water and temperature conditions serpentinization and natural hydrogen production become viable.
They found that mountain ranges provide far better conditions than rift basins for hydrogen generation, with optimal temperatures (200–350°C) more prevalent and large volumes of water flowing through major fault lines.
Hydrogen production in mountainous regions could be 20 times higher annually compared to rift basins.
Additionally, the porous rock types needed to trap economically viable hydrogen accumulations — such as sandstone — are often present in mountain ranges, while typically absent in the deep settings where serpentinization occurs in rift environments.
