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New UHL business targets geologic hydrogen deposits

United H2 Limited (UHL), has formed a hydrogen exploration business, Voyager H2, with a group of engineering partners to capitalize on geologic hydrogen (earlier post) deposits available across Poland and other European regions along with Africa, South America, North America and Australia.

With its first hydrogen exploration unit being prepared for manufacture and a commercial pilot program, Voyager H2 will seek to secure tenements in Poland where there is potentially an estimated one billion tonnes of hydrogen sitting in underground deposits.

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Voyager H2’s patent-pending IP is being prepared for the manufacture of its first prototype and commercial pilot program. The technology has the potential to deliver industry-leading accuracy when surveying for potential hydrogen deposits, according to the company.

The business model will see it secure tenements and produce its own hydrogen while licensing its technology to other exploration businesses and entering into a shared profits scheme.

Natural hydrogen has the potential to provide the cheapest form of this clean fuel, with some studies showing it is three or four times cheaper than creating the gas through electrolysis from renewable energy.

The technology also captures helium as a valuable by-product which can be sold for ~US$84 per kilogram.

Technology highlights:

  • The patent-pending Hydro Helium Manifestor System is a technology for detecting natural hydrogen and helium deposits.

  • The system of 1,000 ground sensors analyzes soil gases in real-time and sends data dozens of times a day to a central computer.

  • The computer uses a proprietary algorithm to identify specific patterns that indicate a high probability of hydrogen deposits.

  • The system takes into account geological data and the permeability of rock layers.

  • Is able to determine whether a given gas migration channel, including hydrogen, is open or closed.

  • The projection will use radioactive tracers occurring naturally in the Earth's crust.

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The spatial model of the geological structure of Poland shows the region has the potential to have hydrogen-rich deposits underground.


Through its technology and team of experts, Voyager H2 believes it is well-placed to revolutionizse the oil & gas industry and deliver a commercially viable avenue to the mass adoption of clean hydrogen.

If there were 10 million megatons of natural hydrogen and we could find 2% or 3%, that could potentially supply all the world’s demand for hydrogen for hundreds of years.

—S&P Global Insights

Moving forward, Voyager H2 will run a pilot program in Poland in 2024 to prove its concept to the market and is seeking investors. The company’s goal is to secure its own tenements so it can begin producing hydrogen while also seeking to license its technology to partners across the globe and engage in a profit-sharing scheme.

Comments

Jer

Seems almost too important to leave it up to private interests at this stage with reserves and access so uncertain.

mahonj

Would be incredible if it turned out there were loads of H2 deposits in the earth.
Bit of a nuisance for the hydrolyser guys, though.

Gorr

Im interrested to buy synthetic gasoline made with geologic hydrogen at a cheaper price than actual petroleum gasoline. Please wake-up and fight climate change more efficiently than costly catastrophic electrification of transport.

yoatmon

I have an extreme distaste for H2. When I think of the oil spills on drilling platforms, oil tanker collisions, grounded tankers, leaking oil pipelines etc. etc. , I get overwhelmed with depressive feelings. No one can warrant that all those failures which occurred during the oil economy will not be repeated during a H2 economy. H2 - freed into the atmosphere - is 30-times more effective in destroying our environment than CO2. No matter in what colors an H2-economy is painted (green, blue, gray, or rainbow etc.) none of them is worth a damn.

mahonj

@Yoat, what is it about H2 that is the problem - is it hydroxyl radicals or something else. I think the H2 leaves the atmosphere pretty quickly as it is so light.
I am asking for information here as I have no clue.

Jer

@Yoat..: It's a fair concern. Risks during containment and ignition/FC stages at the bulk, vehicle, machine, transport lines and vessels, earth reservoir, etc., scales, uses, and seasonal site conditions are not very well assessed in the public communication channels -- and you just know that there will be a wild-west style 'rush' - mostly unqualified- if it comes to light that there are widespread deposits throughout rich, poor, autocratic, etc., countries.

Davemart

Any resource or endeavor needs proper management and control, or they become a disaster area.

For instance, for solar, we can create huge lifeless deserts under panels, disrupt by cables taking it long distances, and wastefully use rare earth elements to construct them,

Alternatively, they can be deployed with sensible concern for resources, in agrivoltaics providing shade, aiding water retention and wildlife.

If natural hydrogen is indeed a substantial exploitable resource, then it is inherently superior to extracting natural gas and oil, let alone coal, as it avoids most of the nasties inherent in their production.

That is not to claim that it will be problem free, as nothing is, and will need proper management and risk asseessment.

But fixating on the risks exclusively of one particular energy source leads to very bad decisions indeed.

That is how we did not massively develop nuclear, with tiny proven casualties, and instead carried right on with coal, with hundreds of thousands of deaths for miners, let alone air pollution, GW risks etc.

In short, it is a very bad idea to allow oneself to obsess.

Yeah, everything has some level of risk, that is the way things work.

Stay cool and use objective even handed risk criteria.

yoatmon

@ mahonj:
Hydrogen and Oxygen are very aggressive elements. Both are rendered relatively harmless within the chemical combination of H2O which indispensable for life - as we know it. Other chemical combinations of these two elements are less desirable. Pure H2 constitutes numerous safety hazards.
https://drexel.edu/~/media/Files/facilities/pdf/CSS%200220_Hydrogen.ashx?la=en
H2 is the smallest atom and diffuses through any material or combination of various materials. The higher the storage pressure of H2 is, the faster it will diffuse into the surroundings.
In the first few years of contamination, H2 is 30x worse than CO2; in the long run this factor reduces to approx. 11x.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/hydrogen-is-worse-for-the-environment-than-co2-a-new-study-finds-186220.html
My recommendation is not to tamper with H2 because the risks are greater than the benefits; even at the risk of the oil industry going down the drain (they're the biggest proponent of a H2 economy). It is also the intention of the oil industry to utilize existing pipelines for the distribution of H2; H2 causes steel to become brittle when permanently exposed to same.

sd

@Davemart,
Mostly agree with your comment.

@yoatmon,
H2 is a real pain to deal with. As you pointed out, it leaks thru everything and also causes steel embrittlement. However, we need hydrogen for a number of industrial uses. One of the most important is ammonia which is used for fertilizer. I am not sure of what to think about geologic hydrogen deposits but I will try to keep an open mind and see if it is an economic resource.

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