Scientists at the University of Pretoria (UP) are leading a study of natural hydrogen gas discovered under the Earth’s surface in Mpumalanga (geologic hydrogen)—a potential source of renewable energy that could contribute to the national energy budget and help address the energy shortage in South Africa.

Mpumalanga is a province in northeastern South Africa, bordering the nations of Swaziland and Mozambique. It embraces the southern half of Kruger National Park, a huge nature reserve with abundant wildlife.

While it is still too early to know how much of an effect the discovery could have on the country’s national energy landscape if exploited, the scientists have envisaged small stand-alone generation units (powering generators with a capacity of about 20 kW) for local domestic or minor industrial use. However, recent stories in Europe suggest that some geologic hydrogen resources might be much bigger than originally thought. (Earlier post.)

Source: University of Pretoria

Structural geologist Professor Adam Bumby said that the team is in the process of identifying potential source sites, after which it will be able to quantify estimated resources.

The role of this project is to indicate the presence of hydrogen, and how it could be incorporated into the national energy budget if it were to be exploited.

—Professor Adam Bumby

This discovery was made as part of the HyAfrica project undertaken by a consortium of partners within the European Union (EU) and African Union (AU). The overall objective of HyAfrica is to assess the resources of natural hydrogen in promising regions of Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa and Togo and to evaluate its social-economic impact. The project will create strategies for the exploitation of the hydrogen source, and allow institutions in the identified countries to develop roadmaps and action plans, and include hydrogen in their energy systems.

Recent samples taken in Mpumalanga currently fall under the natural (“white”) hydrogen category. Follow-up field trips and isotopic comparisons of all the hydrogen samples collected will provide a clearer understanding of the geological controls responsible for generating hydrogen in Mpumalanga. According to Prof Bumby, it is difficult to estimate at this point how long it will take to properly exploit any decent reserves of hydrogen.

The project was tasked with looking for sources of natural hydrogen in Africa, and exploring the possibility of using natural hydrogen for stand-alone renewable energy solutions. The partners fall under the umbrella of LEAP-RE (Long-term Joint EU-AU Research and Innovation Partnership on Renewable Energy). The AU partners are in Morocco, Togo, South Africa and Mozambique.

The South African scientific partners in the HyAfrica consortium are Prof Bumby and Dr Ansie Smit of UP’s Department of Geology, Prof David Walwyn of the UP Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM), along with Samson Masango and Prof Napoleon Hammond of the University of Limpopo. Other consortium partners are the Université Mohammed Premier, Oujda (Morocco); University of Lomé (Togo); Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique); Converge!/University of Évora (Portugal); the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics (Germany); and the Fraunhofer Institute (Germany). The South African investigations are funded through the South African National Energy Development Institute.