Extraordinary discovery of Large-Scale Hydrogen Underground deposit

Underground hydrogen deposits uncovered at 100m depth

By Renè Burri r.burri@eicct.eu

The publication that we are proposing is the abstract of an inquiry we carried out following some hypotheses, later confirmed, about the probability that there could widespread and large deposits of natural hydrogen at low depth. The research of which we shall only provide some well-known and published references, overturns the concepts and notions on the plausibility of extracting hydrogen from the subsoil, just as it happens for petroleum and natural gas extraction. The scientific literature only mentions this hypothesis for circumstances of peculiar geological conditions and great depths.

The article is particularly important because of its strategic economic content, since extracting natural hydrogen at low cost could constitute an important and resounding novelty able to bring a radical change to the global economic and financial network of the energy sector.

New scenarios were opened by sensational discovery recorded a few months ago by some of our contributors informing us that in Bourakle Bougou, a village three hours travel to the northwest of the Malian capital, natural hydrogen was extracted from wells just 100 meters deep.

The discovery of the "hydrogen gusher" is not a recent discovery but dates back to 2002 by the Board Petroma Mali, a company specialized in the exploration of oil and gas, “We were actually looking for water”, says Laurent Seigneur, Chairman of the Board of Petroma S.A. Mali, a company specialized in the exploration of oil and gas in Mali, “However, as we drilled at a depth of 105 meters, gas suddenly shot up and ignited into a huge jet of flame.” Petroma experts had punctured a bubble of pure hydrogen. To date, experts were of the opinion that pure hydrogen hardly ever exists naturally but only in a chemically bound form. The distribution of proceeds is part of the ongoing conflict, which could split the country. The amazing discovery was published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, del 12.04.2012, Economy, Page 19.” Mali’s hidden Treasures”.

The sensational news strangely was not revived by other media or newspapers.

This discovery is sensational, since the extraction or rather the diffusion of natural hydrogen occurs just below ground and is widely present over a large area of many square kilometers. Unfortunately, the situation of extreme danger in that country has not allowed our cooperators to ascertain how many other extraction wells have been dug. We can only note that the situation in Mali in recent years has deteriorated drastically in terms of governance and security. Naturally, what was found in Mali would already be enough to undermine the plausible scientific theses argued so far. However, as a result of this sensational discovery we decided to look further into the matter to understand whether we were faced with an incredible accident of nature or a hushed new source of energy.

The knowledge of the presence of widespread deposits of natural hydrogen at shallow depth has already been detected in previous years but held in confidentiality. This is confirmed in a study: “Evidence for natural molecular hydrogen seepage associated with Carolina bays” published in 2015 by Springer OP. Journal “Progress in Earth and Planetary Science” DOI: 10.1186/s40645-015-0062-5, (V.Zgonnik, V.Beaumont,E.Deville,N.Larin,D. Pilot, K.M Farrell) in which extensive areas of natural hydrogen were found in the subsoil about 100 meters deep in the Carolina Bay area.

The study states that: significant concentrations of molecular hydrogen (H2) were detected, notably around the bays. These measurements suggest that Carolina bays are the surficial expression of fluid flow pathways for hydrogen gas moving from depth to the surface. The potential mechanisms of H2 production and transport and the geological controls on the fluid migration pathways are discussed, with reference to the hypothesis that Carolina bays are the result of local collapses caused by the alteration of rock along the deep pathways of H2 migrating towards the surface. The present H2 seepages are comparable to those in similar structures previously observed in the East European craton. The concentration ( >0,12%) were detected at just 70-80 cm thick the subsoil. Experiment were performed with a 2 m long probe to demonstrate the high gradient concentration as the result of diffusive flow of H2. The gradient were estimated in air ( 7,7 x 10-5 m/s2) to be twice the average concentration measured in the perforation. “We estimated the daily hydrogen flow to be quite high, up to 2700 m3, in some of these features. Evidence of the diffusive flow of H2 seeping from Carolina bays and its abundance suggests that the role of molecular hydrogen in the processes of the Earth’s surface environments must be reconsidered. This reconsideration may influence our understanding of the dynamics and chemical processes of the biosphere and the atmosphere.

The same phenomenon has been studied in some areas of Europe, in particular the study of (Nikolay Larin, Viacheslav Zgonnik, Svetlana Rodina, Eric Deville, Alain Prinzhofer) “Natural Molecular Hydrogen Seepage Associated with Surficial, Rounded Depressions on the European Craton in Russia” Natural Resources Research (2014) DOI: 10.1007/s11053-014-9257-5 “Today, the origin of the H2-rich gas is not fully understood. The occurrence of dissolved H2 found in several boreholes in the deepest aquifers of the sedimentary pile, in areas not located directly below the depressions seeping out H2, demonstrates that hydrogen is not superficial and there is indeed a subterranean source of H2 in the area, and that H2 seeping out at the surface comes from some depth. In trying to understand better this deep source of H2, several very different ways should be investigated. The hypothesis of a primordial origin followed by a still active global degassing of H2 from deep Earth has been proposed by V.N. Larin. A recent study suggests that Earth’s interior initially could have been largely hydrogen-enriched”. Other studies indicate that hydrogen could largely be present in the Earth’s core (Isaev et al. 2007 and references therein) and could play a major role in the gas regime of our planet (Shestopalov and Makarenko 2013).

In 2002 The Sunday Telegraph, By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent (14 Apr 2002) wrote: The world's energy problems could be over after the discovery of vast quantities of hydrogen gas, widely regarded as the most promising alternative to today's dwindling stocks of fossil fuels, in the Earth's crust. The find by scientists has stunned energy experts, who believe that it could provide virtually limitless supplies of clean fuel for cars, homes and industry. Now scientists at Nasa, the American space agency, have found that the Earth's crust is a vast natural reservoir of hydrogen which has become trapped in ancient rocks. According to Professor Friedemann Freund and colleagues at Nasa's Ames Research Centre, in California, the gas is produced when water molecules trapped inside molten rock break down to release hydrogen.

Professor Friedemann Freund: "The fact that hydrogen was forming inside this crystal was a big, big surprise." He subsequently moved his research to England where he grew his own magnesium oxide crystals using regular water and "heavy" water. There he was able to confirm his theory that as the crystals form, they convert some of the water (H2O) into pure hydrogen. "I think, even though I would like to do much more work in order to broaden our knowledge base, that almost all continental rocks are loaded with hydrogen," he stated. "But I would not call it a 'deposit' because the hydrogen is very dilute." While he admitted that he had no direct knowledge of the existence of such theoretical hydrogen gas fields, he said that he had heard of the possible existence of such a field stretching from Canada to Kansas, which would put EV World's home office right on top of it. Unlike petroleum and natural gas deposits that are sporadically scattered about the planet, Freund believes hydrogen-laden rock deposits are more evenly distributed. The most promising source of the hydrogen may be geological "traps" similar to those now drilled for natural gas. Prof Freund said: "One of these natural hydrogen fields is already known to exist in North America and extends from Canada to Kansas." Freund speculated that "this does not rule out the possibility over millions of years that hydrogen could have percolated into some traps similar to natural gas and then be available as a gas field."

The presence of hydrogen at high concentrations up to 58% by volume in free gas phase, has been found in extensive areas in some gold mines: in South Africa, Canada and Finland a several hundreds of meters below surface of crystalline rocks, the study was published on 25 February 2013 on Deep Carbon Observatory.

Therefore, we are facing a discovery of planetary magnitude, the hydrogen exists in the natural state, you can extract it easily, and is available at least as much as oil and gas. There is potentially limitless sources of hydrogen just below our feet.

FM. It’s necessary to underline that the causes of the presence of hydrogen in amounts so significant and so widely spread all over the planet still remain unclear.

However, with our team, we initiated a study in collaboration with other research institutes to analyze the hypothesis of a correlation of events between global warming and possible effects of a destruction of some layers of the crust that may have triggered an unusual process.























