A large deposit of natural, so-called golden hydrogen has been discovered by scientists deep in an Albanian mine near the capital Tirana. The hydrogen flow is the strongest ever recorded. The discovery could help reveal where other underground deposits of this clean fuel are found around the world.
"The bubbling is really, really intense," says Laurent Truche of the University of Grenoble Alpes in France, who measured the gas in a pool of water nearly a kilometre underground. "It's like a jacuzzi (whirlpool)," he added.
To test how extensive the hydrogen deposit is, Truche and his colleagues descended into Bulqizë, the world's largest chrome mine. Hydrogen gas seeping out of the rocks here has caused several explosions in the past.
Scientists have found that the bubbling gas is more than 80 percent hydrogen, with methane and small amounts of nitrogen. It is flowing at a rate of 11 tonnes per year, almost an order of magnitude more than any other hydrogen gas flow from a single point source on the Earth's surface recorded to date.
To determine the source of the gas, the scientists also modelled different scenarios that might indicate where the flow originates. They found that the gas most likely comes from a deeper reservoir of hydrogen accumulated in a fault beneath the mine. Based on the geometry of the fault, they estimate that this reservoir contains at least 5,000 to 50,000 tonnes of hydrogen.
"It's one of the largest volumes of natural hydrogen ever measured," says Eric Gaucher, an independent geochemist specializing in natural hydrogen.
Research indicates that there are many underground sources of hydrogen in the world. Potential reserves are being explored in a number of countries, including the US, Russia and China. Researchers have also recently discovered a large deposit in France.
source: www.cnrs.fr, New Scientist
photo - source: New Scientist
