According to the Australian energy consultancy Energy Quest, six companies have applied for 18 oil exploration licenses in South Australia in the last year in hopes of finding natural hydrogen deposits in underground salt caverns.
The advisory found that the area covered by the permit is equivalent to 570,000 square kilometers, or 32% of the entire state. The “future fuel,” natural hydrogen, is being sought by exploration companies as a possible low-cost and easy-to-obtain source.
Although natural hydrogen is abundant, it has received little attention. As a reminder, natural hydrogen reservoirs are the result of chemical reactions that take place in the earth’s crust. Hydrogen has been found in high concentrations in a variety of geological environments, according to natural hydrogen researcher Vyacheslav Zgonik.
Even as interest in natural hydrogen has grown in recent years, it has received little attention, despite the fact that thousands of companies have announced a variety of ways to produce it. Queensland-based Gold Hydrogen has been granted permission to conduct natural hydrogen deposit exploration across 9,500 square kilometers of the southern York Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.
There has been renewed interest in these hydrogen-filled subterranean caves due to the discovery of two previously unearthed wells that contained high-purity hydrogen. Gold Hydrogen has been granted permission to explore 9,500 square kilometers of land near Adelaide, in the southern part of the York Peninsula to Kangaroo Island, where this highly purified hydrogen was discovered.
Company director Luke Titus reportedly presented evidence of discoveries of natural hydrogen flow with contents up to 90% purity, which led to the state government expanding exploration license 687 last year to include hydrogen. Follow-up tests near the discoveries were independently verified and reviewed by the company, which added that its rights allow it to begin further exploration tests in 2022.
An Australian company is aiming to be the first to produce, use, and sell natural hydrogen, which it has referred to as a “inexhaustible source of green energy”. Chemical reactions leading to underground hydrogen reservoirs are “inexhaustible,” even though little is known about them due to the lack of technological and scientific expertise.
Western Australian startup H2EX announced in January that it plans to begin exploring for natural hydrogen in southern Australia as early as early 2017. It was published last March by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Corporation (CSIRO) to bring the “reporting” on Australian natural gas hydrogen up to date: “Hydrogen in Australian Natural Gas: Events, Sources and Resources”.
Natural hydrogen reservoirs are still being investigated by a number of companies around the world because it has the potential to be 3-4 times cheaper than electrolyzed hydrogen or gas reforming with carbon capture. For less than $2.30 per kilogram, Gold Energy claims to be able to produce natural hydrogen, as opposed to synthetic hydrogen projects that produce more than $6 per kilogram.
