The reservoir sits within a portion of Earth's crust and mantle that once lay at the bottom of the ocean and was scraped off when the tectonic plate it rode on slid beneath another plate. The crumpled slab of crust and mantle was thrust onto land between 45 million and 15 million years ago and forme Contact online >>
The reservoir sits within a portion of Earth''s crust and mantle that once lay at the bottom of the ocean and was scraped off when the tectonic plate it rode on slid beneath another plate. The crumpled slab of crust and mantle was thrust onto land between 45 million and 15 million years ago and formed a 1,900-mile-long (3,000 kilometers) rocky belt, known as an ophiolite, that extends from present-day Turkey to Slovenia.
Ophiolites exist worldwide, and researchhaspreviouslydocumented hydrogen gas leaking from boreholes and mines drilled into these formations. In the new study, scientists discovered the reservoir thanks to huge clouds of hydrogen gas wafting from pools of water inside the Bulqizë mine, which is located 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Tirana, Albania. Such hydrogen reservoirs could be tapped to provide carbon-free fuel, but the deep infrastructure needed to do so is lacking and the gas is inherently difficult to extract.
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"We have seen plenty of hyper alkaline springs hosted in ophiolites worldwide where hydrogen is bubbling [out]," lead study author Laurent Truche, a professor of geochemistry at Grenoble Alpes University in France, told Live Science in an email. But "what we have observed deep in the mine is another dimension," Truche said, and "turns a draining pool inside a mine gallery into a breathtaking 30-square-meter [323 square feet] jacuzzi bubbling with almost pure hydrogen."
Truche and his colleagues explored the deepest levels of the Bulqizë chromium mine and recorded extreme quantities of hydrogen gas leaking from the rocks and bubbling through pools of water. Their measurements suggest that at least 220 tons (200 metric tons) of high-quality hydrogen escape from the mine every year, which is one of the largest natural hydrogen flow rates documented to date.
Hydrogen is a highly flammable gas. The high concentrations measured inside the Bulqizë mine are thought to have sparked three explosions since 2011, killing four miners and injuring many more. "Our study will help to understand the phenomenon and to improve safety," Truche said.
The discovery also sheds light on the geological conditions that seal large reserves of natural hydrogen underground. Hydrogen venting from the Bulqizë mine likely accumulated in tectonic fractures between two blocks of rock deep within the ophiolite, according to the new study, which was published Thursday (Feb. 8) in the journal Science. This fault zone is estimated to be 33 feet (10 meters) wide, up to 3,300 feet (1,000 m) long and up to 16,400 feet (5,000 m) deep, and it "can easily be observed in the deepest mine galleries," between 1,640 feet (500 m) and 3,300 feet deep, Truche said.
Deposits of natural hydrogen are a promising source of carbon-free energy if they are extractable and sufficiently large.
"What sets our discovery apart is the large flux of almost pure [hydrogen] gas we have observed," the authors wrote in the study. "In the context of energy transition, our findings could substantially affect the ongoing search for new energy resources."
Sascha is a U.K.-based trainee staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.
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Hydrogen is becoming a favorable alternative to fossil fuels because it doesn''t release carbon into the environment when burned. The downside is that generating it has long been an energy-intensive business that emits greenhouse gasses that warm the planet.
But recently, a team of researchers uncovered a massive reservoir of hydrogen buried in a mine in Albania that could serve as a source of clean, hydrogen energy.
The reservoir — located in the Bulqizë chromite mine just 25 miles east of Albania''s capital, Tirana — vents at least 200 tons of H2 gas per year, the researchers said in their report, published last month in the journal Science. They reported that that''s one of the largest recorded flow rates of H2 to date.
"What we have observed deep in the mine is another dimension," Laurent Truche, the study''s lead author, told Live Science. The reservoir "turns a draining pool inside a mine gallery into a breathtaking 30-square-meter [323 square feet] jacuzzi bubbling with almost pure hydrogen."
But hydrogen is also a highly flammable gas, and the high concentrations within the mine have reportedly caused three explosions that have killed four miners and injured several others since 2011, according to Live Science.
If the hydrogen in the mine can be safely harnessed, the researchers believe it could be a key energy source. And while large, natural reservoirs of hydrogen similar to this are rare, the researchers note that places with similar geology may be good targets for locating other sources.
The discovery comes just months after President Joe Biden announced an initiative to pour $7 billion into seven hydrogen hubs in the US in regions including the Gulf Coast, Pacific Northwest, and Appalachia. One of the initiative''s goals is for the hubs to produce "more than three million metric tons of clean hydrogen per year," about one-third of the 2030 US clean hydrogen production goal.
''Hydrogen Fever’ Erupts after Discoveries of Large Deposits of the Clean Gas
A chromium mine in Bulqizë, Albania, turned up a large deposit of natural hydrogen gas this year.
Gent Shkullaku/AFP via Getty Images
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Marta Zaraska is a freelance writer based in France and author of Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100 (Appetite by Random House, 2020). She wrote “Shrinking Animals” in the June 2018 issue of Scientific American.
Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at ). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.
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