Mining giants and Big Oil jump on the bandwagon

A growing number of considerable companies, from mining giants to energy students, are adopting the exaggeration of natural hydrogen.

It occurs as Buzz continues to increase on the potential of a resource that defenders say that global energy panorama could radical.

Natural hydrogen, sometimes known as white, gold or geological hydrogen, refers to hydrogen gas found in its natural shape under the surface of the earth. The last resource, discovered for the first time by accident in Mali almost 40 years ago, does not contain carbon and only produces water when it burns.

The interest of investors in the nascent natural hydrogen sector has been intensive in recent months, feeding optimism initially promoted by new research companies and junior exploration companies.

Around last year, some of the established sponsors of the sector include mining giants River River And Fortescue, the state energy Gazprom of Russia, Gazprom, the risk capital arm or the British oil giant BP and the Bill Gates Clean Technology Investment Fund, Energy Ventures.

Exploratory efforts are currently being made in several countries around the world, with Canada and the United States leading the way in terms of project counts during the last year, according to an investigation published by the consultant Rystad Energy.

Analysts expect that next year be fundamental, with the actors in the industry who expect their exploration campaigns to soon can locate the elusive gas.

However, not everyone is convinced about the clean energy potential of natural hydrogen, with critics that mark environmental conerns and distribution challenges. For its part, the International Energy Agency has warned that there is the possibility that the resource “is too dispersed to be captured in an economically viable way.”

Minh Khoi Le, head of hydrogen research at Rystad Energy, said it is difficult to predict whether natural hydrogen can fulfill its promise in 2025.

“I guess last year was the year that things became really interesting for the natural hydrogen space because it was when many colleagues began planning drilling campaigns, extraction tests and we began to see some important actors begin to get involved.

“Since then, I would say that progress has been relatively slow. There are only a few companies that have really begun to drill,” he added.

Le de Rystad, who characterizes the global search or natural hydrogen as a “white gold fever” last year, said that although there was no great progress in the last 12 months, an initial interest in the interest of investors could deliver some result.

“Now, we are beginning to see that companies receive investment, so they have money to finance their drilling campaigns. So, if we want to get a response from whether this thought will work, we will reach that conclusion a little faster this year,” said Le.

Hydrogen has announced the long leg as one of the many potential energy sources that could play a key role in energy transition, but most of them occurs using fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, a process that generates important greenhouse gas emissions.

Green hydrogen, a process that involves dividing water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity, is an exception to the rainbow of hydrogen color. However, its development has been the hero when issuing costs and a challenging economic environment.

Hyterra of Australia announced an investment of $ 21.9 million Fortescue in August last year, noting that the ProEDeds would be used for exploration projects expanded from full funds.

A spokesman for Fortescue, one of the main green hydrogen developers, said that his impulse in the natural hydrogen sector was in line with his “strategic commitment to explore zero emission fuels.”

Recognizing that more work is required to completely evaluate the Natural Hydrogen emissions profile, Fortescue spokesman described technology as a “promising opportunity” to accelerate industrial decarbonization.

In other places, BP Ventures, the Risk Capital Bar or BP, directed a round of financing of the Snow of Natural Hydrogen Exploration Snow based in the United Kingdom earlier this year, while the new company based in France Mantle8 recently received euros, including energy advances, a climate background and technology founded by Bill Gates in 2015.

Eric Téone, director of technology at Breakthrough Energy, said the background had backed the tastes of Mantle8 and the headquarters with headquarters in the US.

“Hydrogen is a pure reactive chemical energy. If we have enough hydrogen and it is cheap enough, we can do almost anything. We can use it to make metals, make fuels, you could simply make food and all with Farwer emissions thanks.

“We know that it is out there and not only in isolated pockets. Early exploration has identified natural hydrogen on six continents. The challenge now is to discover how to extract it efficiently, move it safely and build the systems to put it to work.”

Aurian Durbuis, Chief of Cabinet of France8, said the impulse certainly seems to be building from a risk capital perspective.

“In fact, there is a growing interest, especially given the dynamics with green hydrogen at this time, unfortunately. People are directing their eyes to other solutions, which is in our favor,” Durbuis told CNBC per video.

Based in Grenoble, in the foothills of the French Alps, Mantle8 points to the discovery of 10 million tons of natural hydrogen by 2030 to complement the objectives of the European Union.

“The question is Can we find producing deposits, in oil and gas terminology? That is really what we need to find as an industry,” Durbuis said.

“We believe we can pierce in 2028 and we hope that this is the moment of Eureka because if we can find something at that time, then it could be a change of game. If we want highly concentrated hydrogen, with pressure, then this is.”

The coalition of Hydrogen Sciences, a group of academics, scientists and engineers who seek to provide a vision based on evidence to the role of hydrogen in the energy transition, said that the exploration for natural hydrogen is still in an “embryonic stage”, the captilla or the probability of probability “can be extracted at” relatively intelligent “scale.

The only hydrogen well produced by the world in Mali, for example, supplies “only a fraction of daily energy production of a single wind turbine,” Arnout Everts told CNBC, geo -scientific and member of the Hydrogen Sciences Coalition, by email.

“Taking the evolution of American shale gas as an analogy, even if great findings are made, it will probably take decades to achieve industrial production,” Everts said.

Ultimately, the Hydrogen Sciences Coalition said that the search for natural hydrogen runs the risk of distracting the renewable hydrogen approach necessary to decarbonize the industries today.