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Hydrogen Goldmine? According to Scientists, This Billion-Year-Old Rift Could Provide Us a Near-Endless Supply of Natural Hydrogen
Scitech Daily ^ | November 15, 2024 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Posted on 11/15/2024 5:14:20 AM PST by Red Badger

Researchers are examining the Midcontinent Rift’s potential to produce clean hydrogen, a renewable energy source with low emissions. This work could advance the hydrogen economy as a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Researchers in Nebraska are exploring the Midcontinent Rift’s potential to produce renewable, carbon-free hydrogen, possibly meeting energy needs for centuries.

Around 1.1 billion years ago, the North American continent almost split in two, leaving a 1,200-mile stretch of volcanic rock called the Midcontinent Rift. This geological feature holds the potential to produce substantial amounts of natural hydrogen, which could provide a vast supply of clean energy.

University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers are studying the rift — which runs from beneath Lake Superior through parts of Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas — to determine how best to access that hydrogen.

Hydrogen is potentially a key player in the effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. It produces no carbon emissions and, unlike oil and gas that can take millions of years to generate from organic deposits, it is constantly renewing underground when water interacts with the volcanic rock.

But there is much to learn.

“Our understanding of processes governing the production, migration, and accumulation of evasive natural hydrogen in the continental deep subsurface is still in its infancy,” said Seunghee Kim, Charles J. Vranek Associate Professor of civil engineering and one of the project’s principal investigators.

Testing the Rift’s Viability

To test the viability of hydrogen production in the rift, a test well was drilled in Nebraska five years ago. So far, the data is promising. Scientists believe it is possible the geomechanical and biogeochemical conditions in the rift limit the loss and consumption of this naturally generated hydrogen, which could leave trapped hydrogen “at an economically meaningful scale in the mid-continent subsurface.”

Hyun-Seob Song (left), associate professor of biological systems engineering and food science and technology; Karrie Weber (center), professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences and biological sciences; and Seunghee Kim, associate professor of civil engineering, are studying hydrogen found in the Midcontinent Rift as a potential energy source. Credit: Nick Kumpula | Research and Innovation

The Midcontinent Rift is estimated to be 3,000 to 5,000 feet underground.

“It could be deep enough to be stored but shallow enough that we can access it,” said Karrie Weber, professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences and biological sciences and another project investigator. “The geology is in our favor.”The U.S. Geological Survey estimates between tens of millions and tens of billions of megatons of hydrogen are in Earth’s crust. But much of that would be inaccessible to humans because it is either too deep or too far offshore, or present in amounts too small to exploit. That is what makes sites like the Midcontinent Rift so important. Other subsurface rifts in the world — located in France, Germany, Russia, and the African continent — could also produce hydrogen, Kim said.

Global Implications for Hydrogen Energy

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there might be enough accessible natural hydrogen under the Earth’s surface to meet global energy needs for thousands of years.

Kim said the Nebraska team will explore several questions surrounding hydrogen flow and seepage from the subsurface to the surface; the feasibility of storing hydrogen naturally or in engineered storage systems; how hydrogen reacts with existing fluids and rock minerals in the subsurface; and how fast and how much hydrogen could be consumed by microorganisms.

Kim is approaching the questions from a civil engineering perspective, while Weber and another co-principal investigator, Hyun-Seob Song, are exploring the biogeochemical and microbiology implications.

“This has not been well-studied so far,” said Song, associate professor of biological systems engineering and food science and technology. “We aim to predict the microbiomes’ behavior at this subsurface level.”

Song will develop computational modeling tools to integrate and assess that data that Weber provides.

The project is funded by a five-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) initiative. It is one of 19 projects funded this year.

The research builds on previous work funded by the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research.

Weber said the university’s role in this research is another instance of the state’s potential leadership in what is called “the hydrogen economy,” which refers to the role hydrogen could have in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and serving as a clean energy source.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine; History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: ecoterrorism; ecoterrorists; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; hydrogen; midcontinentrift; volcanicrock
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1 posted on 11/15/2024 5:14:20 AM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

More proof that God looks out for drunks, little children, and the United States of America.


2 posted on 11/15/2024 5:25:04 AM PST by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
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To: Red Badger
The project is funded by a five-year, $1 million grant ...

Is that all? A true government grant would spend that in fund raising costs.

3 posted on 11/15/2024 5:26:21 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: texas booster

Graduate students are cheap.


4 posted on 11/15/2024 5:30:21 AM PST by stateofit
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To: texas booster

Trump introduces Age of Trump 300 years of property


5 posted on 11/15/2024 5:39:25 AM PST by nikos1121
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To: stateofit

Multi-discipline effort 1) associate professor of biological systems engineering and food science and technology; 2) professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences and biological sciences; 3) associate professor of civil engineering. That’s not the team I would pick if I wanted a solid assessment.

I’d go with Geologist, Chemical Engineer and Petroleum Engineer, who would, after a short lunch, have all the data needed to make Vivek and Elon’s short list.


6 posted on 11/15/2024 5:40:03 AM PST by stateofit
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To: Red Badger

IF ONLY someone could find a use for the noxious hot air abundant in the halls of Congress. have always believed it’s the major U.S. contribution to the so-called global warming scare.


7 posted on 11/15/2024 5:40:04 AM PST by Qwapisking ("IF the Second goes first the First goes second" L.Star)
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To: Red Badger

Don’t they know that the water vapor produced by burning hydrogen is an even more potent greenhouse gas than CO2? Oh the humanity...


8 posted on 11/15/2024 5:41:19 AM PST by Pres Raygun (Repent America)
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To: Red Badger

Cost benefit analysis.

Show me that the cost of retooling the country to support hydrogen fuel will reap benefits that will exceed that cost.

Then and only then will I support these Green initiative.

And this analysis may not include the reduction in the use of carbon based fuels because carbon based Global Warming is BS.


9 posted on 11/15/2024 5:44:26 AM PST by Pontiac (esse welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: stateofit

> That’s not the team I would pick if I wanted a solid assessment. <

It could have been worse. An Ivy League school would have sent a Diversity specialist, a Gender Studies major, and a pro-Palestine protester.


10 posted on 11/15/2024 5:45:47 AM PST by Leaning Right (It’s morning in America. Again.)
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To: Red Badger

Two thoughts:

1. Burning hydrogen produces water vapor. Water vapor is the largest component of the greenhouse gas mix. They want to stop burning high energy hydrocarbons with low energy H2. ‘Environmentalists’ are not mentalists if you catch my drift.

2. If we start removing hydrogen from the US mid continent rift (mother of all fracking) just imagine the earthquakes THAT could spawn. There is modern history in that rift.


11 posted on 11/15/2024 5:45:57 AM PST by Blueflag (To not carry is to choose to be defenseless.)
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To: Red Badger

When you burn hydrogen with oxygen to release energy, the result is pollution free WATER.

And the greenies thought it would be V8 engines that would flood Florida!


12 posted on 11/15/2024 6:04:38 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (NOT TIRED OF WINNING!)
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To: Red Badger

So,they found their hydrogen wells.🤔


13 posted on 11/15/2024 6:12:46 AM PST by BiteYourSelf ( Earth first, we'll strip mine the other planets later.)
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To: Red Badger

$1 million. Funding chinee graduate students for years.


14 posted on 11/15/2024 6:29:21 AM PST by Sequoyah101 (Donald John Trump. First man to be Elected to the Presidency THREE times since FDR.)
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To: stateofit

Used to grade papers for two bucks an hour. (It was up to me to keep track.)


15 posted on 11/15/2024 6:44:57 AM PST by sasquatch (Do NOT forget Ashli Babbit! c/o piytar)
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To: Blueflag

To me, this suggests using hydrogen to fuel large scale use (e.g., generating electricity) where the water vapor can be captured, processed, and distributed for large-scale water use (e.g., cities, irrigation). Nebraska has thousands of those circular sprinkling system in the state. Since it’s on the rift, generate power for the area by burning it and use the resulting water to irrigate crops in the area.

Using liquid hydrogen to power cars seems more difficult because it is less energy-dense that distillate fuels and water capture probably is not possible.

I don’t know the cost, but it sounds like a win/win to me.


16 posted on 11/15/2024 6:56:03 AM PST by econjack
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To: Uncle Miltie

Wasn’t the Hindenburg hydrogen powered?


17 posted on 11/15/2024 6:59:23 AM PST by oldtech
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To: Red Badger

If they let all the hydrogen out, the Earth will shrink like a punctured balloon and fall into the Sun.


18 posted on 11/15/2024 7:02:00 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Red Badger

California needs a pollution-free fuel. Ship it there & if there’s an occasional explosion...oh, well...


19 posted on 11/15/2024 7:02:28 AM PST by oldtech
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To: Red Badger

Have they solved this?

https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/what-is-hydrogen-embrittlement


20 posted on 11/15/2024 7:16:34 AM PST by pa_dweller (I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning!)
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