The search for a new energy that will help decarbonize our economies and reduce our carbon footprint seems to be relentless, or so we thought until now. A group of scientists have just announced the discovery of a new type of hydrogen, but it’s not exactly good news. Why is that? They have done it by mistake, and now it is the dirtiest energy that exists on the planet.
New type of hydrogen? The color that has experts on edge
Hydrogen has long been touted as a potential clean, renewable energy source. Most hydrogen today is produced from fossil fuels, earning it the nickname “grey hydrogen.” This process emits greenhouse gases. “Green hydrogen,” made using renewable electricity, offers a cleaner solution but remains expensive to produce at scale.
Recently, attention has turned to white hydrogen, (hydrogen occurring naturally underground). Touted as limitless and cheap, white hydrogen seems like the holy grail. But a closer look reveals challenges around extracting it and questions about how clean it really is.
White hydrogen, discovered by accident: could it be a good option?
White hydrogen was first discovered in 2021 by a group of researchers in Utah who were drilling for natural gas. They had drilled down over 8,000 feet into a natural gas field when they unexpectedly hit pockets of nearly pure hydrogen gas.
This hydrogen was not produced artificially, but was naturally occurring deep underground. The researchers were amazed to find hydrogen concentrations of up to 98%, which is extremely rare. Typically, hydrogen found in natural gas deposits is present at just trace levels.
The discovery happened in the Uinta Basin, an area in eastern Utah full of conventional natural gas fields. But this was the first time such high concentrations of hydrogen were found naturally occurring in the region, as it was earlier found in Spain, France and Albania.
The researchers immediately realized the significance of stumbling upon this hydrogen. Its potential as a clean energy source, if it could be extracted at scale, was groundbreaking. They named it “white hydrogen” after the white drilling mud that flowed back up, indicating they had hit a pocket of high-purity hydrogen.
This accidental finding of white hydrogen in Utah sparked new interest and research into how this type of hydrogen could potentially transform the energy industry. The possibilities were endless, but first, its viability needed to be proven.
The extreme production of white hydrogen you won´t believe
White hydrogen is produced through a process called methane pyrolysis, which involves heating natural gas (which is mostly methane) to high temperatures without oxygen. This process splits the methane into hydrogen and solid carbon.
Specifically, methane pyrolysis works by sending natural gas through a pyrolysis reactor at very high temperatures of 1300-1500°C. The intense heat breaks down the methane into hydrogen and carbon. The solid carbon emerges as a byproduct while the hydrogen gas is collected.
This differs from gray hydrogen production, where natural gas is mixed with steam, then sent through a reactor. This produces hydrogen along with carbon dioxide emissions. With methane pyrolysis, no carbon dioxide is emitted since the carbon emerges as a solid instead of a gas.
This makes white hydrogen essentially carbon neutral and cleaner than gray hydrogen. The resulting white hydrogen gas can then be captured and used for energy needs. The solid carbon byproduct is also usable, often as a construction material.
As you can see, white hydrogen is far from being the solution we need, at least while we still have to explore the path of photovoltaics and wind power. The key will be, at least, in the diversification of new colors of this energy to find the ideal one. We have tried orange, pink and purple, but none of them seem to be sustainable, so shall we stick to blue and green?