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The largest natural flow of hydrogen gas ever discovered is seeping through a reservoir deep inside a chrome mine in Albania. Reporting the discovery in a new study, scientists say the deposit could pave the way for new, cleaner ways to capture hydrogen for use as a clean fuel.
Hydrogen has long been sought as an alternative to fossil fuels because it can be burned without emitting greenhouse gases. Until now, however, natural sources of hydrogen have been difficult to access, and the resource itself has typically been produced from natural gas through a process that consumes energy and emits carbon dioxide.
Also, although hydrogen is known to play a key role in supporting life deep in the Earth's crust, scientists believed that the gas's high reactivity prevented it from accumulating in large underground deposits.
Everything began to change when, in 1992, combustible gas was first discovered at the Bulkize mine in Albania. Massive explosions in 2011, 2017 and 2023 have fueled suspicions that the odorless gas was indeed hydrogen, and researchers have now determined that the mine may be at the top of a fault that contains between 5 and 000 tonnes (50 and 000 tonnes) precious resource.
After analyzing the gas bubbling in the mine pool, the study authors determined that it was indeed 84 percent hydrogen, with smaller amounts of methane and nitrogen. After calculating the gas flow, they concluded that the pool releases about 11 tons (12,1 tons) of hydrogen per year, equivalent to 34 kilograms (75 pounds) per day.
Combining this figure with other flows in the well and shaft of the same mine, the researchers estimated that the total amount of hydrogen gas passing through the mine is about 200 metric tons (220 tons) per year.
"Our study revealed a high level of emissions of nearly pure geological H2, indicating the potential of a new extractable primary energy source," they write.
Interestingly, the Bulqizë mine is located in an area of iron-rich rocks known as ophiolites, which are known to generate hydrogen by reacting with water and are linked to other hydrogen flows in other parts of the world. Therefore, the authors of the study suggest that further significant natural deposits of hydrogen may lie beneath other ophiolitic outcrops elsewhere.
"We found that ophiolites, which are mantle rocks of oceanic crust advected onto continents, are not only effective source rocks, but also have the potential to host high-quality, H2-rich gas deposits," they conclude.
