Environment & Energy

Caribbeans

(1,074 posts) Sat Jan 18, 2025, 03:03 PM Jan 18

USGS releases first-ever map of potential for geologic hydrogen in U.S.

Map showing prospectivity of geologic hydrogen in the conterminous United States. Public Domain. Map created by USGS.

USGS releases first-ever map of potential for geologic hydrogen in U.S.

USGS.gov | January 16, 2025

RESTON, Va. — The U.S. Geological Survey today published the first map of the prospective locations of naturally-occurring geologic hydrogen resources in the contiguous United States, reflecting a systematic analysis of geologic conditions favorable for hydrogen that draws on a newly developed methodology.

The map is the first of its kind at continental scale anywhere, showing likely underground areas to explore for geologic hydrogen. It reveals areas of interest that have the potential to hold accumulations of geologic hydrogen, including a mid-continent region that covers Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota and Michigan, the Four Corners states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, the California coast, and areas along the Eastern seaboard.

“For decades, the conventional wisdom was that naturally occurring hydrogen did not accumulate in sufficient quantities to be used for energy purposes,” said Sarah Ryker, USGS associate director for energy and minerals. “This map is tantalizing because it shows that several parts of the U.S. could have a subsurface hydrogen resource after all.”

In a recent paper, USGS geologists Geoff Ellis and Sarah Gelman estimated large potential for — and large uncertainty about — the amount of hydrogen accumulations in the world. “We calculate the energy content of this estimated recoverable amount of hydrogen to be roughly twice the amount of energy in all the proven natural gas reserves on Earth,” Ellis and Gelman wrote in their recent Science Advances paper...more
https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/usgs-releases-first-ever-map-potential-geologic-hydrogen-us

Science.org: Model predictions of global geologic hydrogen resources
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ado0955

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USGS releases first-ever map of potential for geologic hydrogen in U.S. (Original Post) Caribbeans Jan 18 OP

Let's assume for a pathetic second, that geologic hydrogen were available to be tapped. NNadir Jan 18 #1

NNadir

(35,010 posts)

1. Let's assume for a pathetic second, that geologic hydrogen were available to be tapped.

Reply to Caribbeans (Original post)

Sat Jan 18, 2025, 04:05 PM

Jan 18

Would the "drill baby, drill" fantasy be a good idea in a time of rising seas?

Practically every one on the planet who hypes the hydrogen scam, is of course, really looking to greenwash fossil fuels, from which hydrogen is overwhelmingly manufactured, so the idea of squandering resources doesn't offend them at all, since they don't give a rat's ass about the environment.

For instance, one often sees them advertising for Chinese hydrogen bullshit despite the fact that how hydrogen is made in China is well known.

Subsidizing Grid-Based Electrolytic Hydrogen Will Increase Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Coal Dominated Power Systems Liqun Peng, Yang Guo, Shangwei Liu, Gang He, and Denise L. Mauzerall Environmental Science & Technology 2024 58 (12), 5187-5195

The text is clear enough.

From the introductory text:

... Currently, nearly all hydrogen in China is either produced directly from fossil fuels (55% from coal gasification and 14% from steam methane reforming (SMR)) or as a byproduct of petroleum refining (28%), with only 1% coming from water electrolysis. (2) Producing 1 kg of coal- or SMR-based hydrogen emits roughly 19 and 10 kg of CO2, respectively. (3) In 2020, hydrogen production from fossil fuels in China emitted ∼322Tg of CO2, equivalent to 25% of total CO2 emissions from industrial processes, a number expected to rise with increasing hydrogen demand. (4) Industrial processes include production of nonmetallic mineral products, chemical, and metal products, as well as production and consumption of halocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. (4)

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The bold, italics and underlining is mine.

EST: Chinese Hydrogen Production Is Making Climate Change Worse.

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