The Underground Gas Station
Hi dear Wonderers,
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As I have written on these pages before, Hydrogen is a supremely frustrating element. So abundant and yet so difficult to find or produce economically. Just how tantalizing close we are has been brought to our attention by an 11 year long study in Canada.
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During this study, scientists measured how much natural hydrogen was released in a mine in Canada. They came to the conclusion that this one mine produced enough of the stuff to generate 4,7 million kwh of energy on a yearly basis. While that sounds like a lot, it's not that spectacular at all. It's enough to drive about 235.000 km, plenty for a street of people, but hardly enough for a town. What is interesting in the study is that 70% of the earth's crust is capable of producing hydrogen all on its own like that. Even better, those same rock combinations are often also producing methane and helium at acceptable rates.
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Establishing that valuable gasses are simply oozing out of our beloved space ship we call earth is quite exciting. But before we get our hopes up, capturing them before they dissipate into nature, separating and then transporting them to where they are needed are not easy and cheap. Remember that sun and wind are also freely available and it has taken until now for the technology and industry to scale to a point where they are as cheap or cheaper than the old incumbents coal, oil and gas.
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Singularity hub article.
Grtz
Pieter
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