They discovered a big deposit of hydrogen around 3,000m underground.
“It is what we call serendipity,” explains Prof Pironon, research director of France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at the University of Lorraine.
Such a discovery would have been of scholarly interest only a few years ago, but it now causes quite a commotion.
This is because many people believe hydrogen will become a vital fuel in the next years. They say that because hydrogen does not emit CO2 when used as a fuel or in industrial operations, it could be the key to bringing the world economy to net zero.
What is net zero, and how are countries achieving it?
Bécancour PEM electrolyzer
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Less than 1% of global hydrogen generation is free of emissions.
The main disadvantage of hydrogen is that most methods of production are currently not environmentally friendly.
The Carbon Trust estimates that less than 1% of current worldwide hydrogen generation is emission-free.
Grey hydrogen is created by separating methane into carbon dioxide and hydrogen (H2). The same process is used to make blue hydrogen, but the CO2 produced is caught and stored.
Coal is partially burned to yield black hydrogen.
Green hydrogen, the illusive 1%, is produced by electrolyzing water into oxygen and hydrogen.
However, because green hydrogen is somewhat expensive and in low supply, any additional source of the gas that is emission-free would be welcome.
Natural deposits, sometimes known as natural hydrogen, gold hydrogen, or white hydrogen, could be a significant supply.
They are made in a variety of processes, the most common of which involves the interaction of ground water with iron-rich minerals such as olivine. This splits the water into oxygen, which bonds to the iron, and hydrogen.
