Huge hydrogen stores found below Earth's crust

Vancouver Sun ^ | April 15, 2002 | Robert Matthews

[pragmatic_asian]

LONDON -- Scientists have discovered vast quantities of hydrogen gas, widely regarded as the most promising alternative to today's dwindling stocks of fossil fuels, lying beneath the Earth's crust.

The discovery has stunned energy experts, who believe that it could provide virtually limitless supplies of clean fuel for cars, homes and industry.

Governments across the world are urgently seeking ways of switching from conventional energy sources such as coal, gas and nuclear power to cleaner, safer alternatives.

Energy specialists estimate that oil production will start to decline within the next 10 to 15 years, as the economically viable reserves start to run out.

Hydrogen gas has been hailed as the ultimate clean fuel, as it produces only water when burned. Until now, however, moves to switch to a "hydrogen economy" have been dogged by the cost of making the gas. The two most common ways -- extraction from natural gas and sea water -- are expensive and create environmental problems.

Now scientists at the American space agency Nasa have found that the Earth's crust is a vast natural reservoir of hydrogen which has become trapped in ancient rocks.

The team made its discovery while trying to explain how bacteria live many miles below the Earth's surface. Such bugs have no access to sunlight, forcing them to rely on another source of energy for life. Scientists suspected that hydrogen was the source.

According to Professor Friedemann Freund and colleagues at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California, the gas is produced when water molecules trapped inside molten rock break down to release hydrogen.

"In the top 20 kilometres of the Earth's crust, the conditions are right to produce a nearly inexhaustible supply of hydrogen," said Professor Freund.

Studies by the team of common rock types such as granite and olivine have revealed extraordinarily high levels of trapped hydrogen. Professor Freund said that his team had "tantalizing evidence" that as much as 1,000 litres of hydrogen may be trapped in each cubic metre of rock.

Although formidable engineering problems remain to be overcome in abstracting the gas, the sheer volume of the Earth's crust means that such a high concentration would solve the world's energy problems.

"Everyone thinks of gas and oil as the main sources, and it's very difficult to get anyone to take alternatives seriously," said Dr. David Elliott, the professor of technology policy at the Open University in London. "The possibility of vast reserves of hydrogen in the Earth's crust could change that mindset."

The low yield of energy from burning hydrogen compared to gas, however, means that vast quantities of rock would have to be mined.

Professor Freund believes that the extraction and crushing of rock to extract the trapped hydrogen is likely to be prohibitively expensive. The reaction which creates the gas takes place at depths far below those involved in oil extraction, which are typically about two miles down.

The most promising source of the hydrogen may be geological "traps" similar to those now drilled for natural gas. Professor Freund said: "One of these natural hydrogen fields is already known to exist in North America, and extends from Canada to Kansas."

[pragmatic_asian]

This is exactly why we should support alternative energy research. A discovery like this should have the Arab oil countries evacuating their pants enclosed bowels. I wonder what those Arab oil countries are going to do once the spigot runs dry and their populations continue to grow.

[Nachum]

Very interesting.

[Fish out of Water]

index bump

[Davea]

Should probably put a "NO SMOKING" sign down there.

[dts32041]

Sounds like it could really be an explosive situation for the ME.

It could just rain on their parade.

[Good Tidings Of Great Joy]

What will they do? Launch WW3. With what is up to us. In the meantime, let's pursue alternative energy sources and bankrupt them.

[shaggy eel]

,,, sounds like the value of Canada's going up [LOL!]

[Savage Beast]

I guess they'll sit around griping about how "Allah" hasn't given all those infidels the punishment they deserve. Who knows? Maybe it'll dawn on them that they've been worshipping a phoney "idol" all this time while the one true God was blessing everybody else in the world.

[Bosco]

I agree. Fuel cell technology using hydrogen would drain the terror swamp pretty darn well, IMO.

[apochromat]

We could use the hydrogen to run ocean mining machines, because there's 10 billion tons of gold under the sea!

[Enlightiator]

that as much as 1,000 litres of hydrogen may be trapped in each cubic metre of rock.>/i>

Is he talking about free hydrogen here??? If so, its hard to believe this hasn't been "discovered" until now. If true, why isn't hydrogen release a hazard in mining operations? If he's including hydrogen in any form, including the H2 in the water in the rocks, then the claims are an exageration. Something is missing from this report, and I am a sceptical of the broad claims for this new "discovery."

[hove]

Now hold on everybody. This might just be a very dangerous thing. As this stored/bound hydrogen is consumed, it will attach to an oxygen atom. The result is water. All that water vapor will make the atmosphere more dense and the planet much warmer. And worse yet, the oxygen will become depleted in our atmosphere. Which will require using the hydrogen as a power source to break the water into its constituent gases. But that would mean more hydrogen bonding with more oxyge.....no....this is a very very bad idea!

[doxteve]

Some alternative energy research claims that the water vapor released by burning Hydrogen will become even more dangerous than CO2 and the other gases in our atmosphere because it holds more heat than CO2.

Whatever happens will.

[spqrzilla9]

If you pay close attention, you see that the costs of extracting the hydrogen probably exceed the energy obtained.

[Kerberos]

"The low yield of energy from burning hydrogen compared to gas, however, means that vast quantities of rock would have to be mined."

And just how vast are we talking?

To a certain degree this just sounds like more environmentalist pie in the sky stuff.

[Arthur McGowan]

The oceans will easily absorb all the water created by human burning of hydrogen. It will add about 1/100th of an inch to the level of the oceans in the next ten centuries. The level of oxygen in the air will be regulated automatically by the natural combustion of forests, houses, etc. With a little less oxygen in the air, it will be a safer world; with a little more, our houses and trees would be burning like crazy.

[Ole Okie]

If he's including hydrogen in any form, including the H2 in the water in the rocks, then the claims are an exageration. Something is missing from this report, and I am a sceptical of the broad claims for this new "discovery."

Strikes you that there's a few technical details missing in this report, too?

They are handwaving some very difficult things; such as exploration technology, drilling/mining technology, extraction technology, and a few things like unto that.

[John Jamieson]

This is stupid. It's not free hydrogen, takes more energy to get it than you get by burning the hydrogen. Lots of hydrogen in water too. So, what.....it's already burnt.

[Dialup Llama]

Studies by the team of common rock types such as granite and olivine have revealed extraordinarily high levels of trapped hydrogen. Professor Freund said that his team had "tantalizing evidence" that as much as 1,000 litres of hydrogen may be trapped in each cubic metre of rock. Although formidable engineering problems remain to be overcome in abstracting the gas, the sheer volume of the Earth's crust means that such a high concentration would solve the world's energy problems. So basically they are going to have to grind up million of meters of rock to get some hydrogen? Doesn't sound very practical.