The next big thing in hydrogen could be underground
The next big thing in hydrogen could be underground
摘要: Climate change and energy
The next big thing in hydrogen could be underground
Is this the 21st-century gold rush?
Casey Crownhart
archive page
正文
Climate change and energy
The next big thing in hydrogen could be underground
Is this the 21st-century gold rush?
Casey Crownhart
archive page
August 20, 2026
Researchers found natural hydrogen gas at a hot spring in Indonesia in 2023.
Mohamad Hamzah/NurPhoto via AP
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
There’s a hunt for new sources of hydrogen, and the gas (or at least the right conditions to make it) could be hiding beneath our feet.
Hydrogen can be used as a fuel in everything from large trucks to planes to steelmaking. It’s often hailed as a climate solution because when burned, it produces water and oxygen—none of the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.
a new story
for our latest print issue, freelance reporter James Dineen took a look at the 21st-century gold rush for naturally occurring hydrogen gas. This is an area of research I’ve been fascinated by lately, so let’s take a look at the potential and the questions that still linger.
Today, hydrogen is overwhelmingly made using fossil fuels, generally natural gas. And most of it is used in petroleum refining or goes on to make fertilizer and other chemicals. But in recent years, many in the climate world have imagined a future where its production is clean too.
If you’d asked me a few years ago, I would have said the race for clean hydrogen was between methods that use electrolyzers powered with renewable electricity and operations that use established, fossil-fuel-based approaches cleaned up with carbon capture. But both those methods have struggled to gain ground, largely because of their high cost.
Lately, there’s been momentum in a new field: geologic hydrogen. Companies have found naturally occurring hydrogen resources across Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America.
The US Geological Survey
publishes a map
of hydrogen prospectivity in the country (basically, where the gas is most likely to occur naturally). One hot spot is the Midwest—specifically the Midcontinent Rift, w