6.2 trillion tons: US hydrogen jackpot could be double than Earth’s gas reserves

The US Geological Survey (USGS) published a map showing locations in the United States that may contain significant reserves of “geologic hydrogen,” challenging conventional beliefs about its availability.

Governments worldwide are actively seeking alternatives to oil and gas. For a long time, experts doubted that enough naturally occurring hydrogen reserves existed to serve as a viable alternative energy source.

However, the new map released by the USGS counters this assumption.

“For decades, the conventional wisdom was that naturally occurring hydrogen did not accumulate in sufficient quantities for energy purposes,” explains Sarah Ryker, the USGS associate director for energy and minerals, in an official announcement.

“This map is tantalizing because it indicates that several parts of the U.S. could have a subsurface hydrogen resource after all.”

Is the US sitting on a clean energy source? Maybe

After conducting an extensive geological survey, USGS researchers compiled a groundbreaking map that categorizes which states most likely harbor rich amounts of hydrogen reserves.

This map builds on a previous study published last month by USGS researchers, which suggested that untapped hydrogen lying beneath the Earth’s surface could total an astounding 6.2 trillion tons.

Just 2% of this amount could theoretically provide carbon-free fuel for the world for 200 years. “We estimate that the energy content of this recoverable hydrogen is roughly double the energy contained in all the proven natural gas reserves on Earth,” noted authors Geoff Ellis and Sarah Gelman in their recent study in Science Advances.

First, they established a strong argument and provided compelling evidence for the plentiful existence of this potential new energy source.

“We have demonstrated that there is significant potential for geologic hydrogen as an emerging energy resource,” Gelman says in the announcement.

Next, they focused on identifying possible locations of these resources within the United States.

But as nothing like this had ever been done before, they had to develop a new methodology that they applied to the contiguous 48 states.

By assessing ideal conditions for hydrogen accumulation, such as “hydrogen sources, reservoir rocks, and seals to trap gas,” they discovered that many states have tappable naturally occurring hydrogen reserves.

The map divides the country into two categories: areas highly likely to contain usable hydrogen and areas less likely to have it.

States identified as having potential include Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, the Four Corners states (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah), the California coast, and certain regions along the Eastern Seaboard.

However, this map is just the beginning; it will be updated as further investigations are conducted. This is only the first step toward assessing the true extraction potential of hydrogen.

Is hydrogen the future?

Study authors project that hydrogen may “account for as much as 30% of future energy supply in some sectors.” Additionally, global demand for hydrogen is expected to increase more than fivefold by 2050.

As the commitment to achieving zero-carbon emissions remains a priority for both scientists and governments, the current methods for obtaining hydrogen are costly and inefficient.

Have USGS researchers finally discovered the key to sustainable energy? Is the U.S. sitting on an abundant supply of clean hydrogen energy waiting to be unlocked? And how will we go about extracting it? This innovative and groundbreaking map serves as the first step in addressing these questions.