Earth’s Secret Hydrogen Jackpot Has Enough Clean Power for 170,000 Years

Scientists from the University of Oxford, Durham University, and the University of Toronto have identified the key geological ingredients needed to find natural clean hydrogen beneath the Earth’s surface.

This natural hydrogen is produced by the Earth over millions of years and can accumulate underground in the right rock formations, the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment reported.

The study shows that the conditions for trapping hydrogen exist in many parts of the world, making this a truly global opportunity.

Hydrogen is already a $135 billion global industry, used to produce fertilizer and other essential chemicals that support modern life.

It is also a cornerstone for future clean energy systems, with the market expected to grow to as much as $1 trillion by 2050.

This new research could help industries discover and tap into natural hydrogen reserves, offering a cleaner alternative to current hydrogen production methods that rely on fossil fuels.

The findings were published on May 13 in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.

Hydrogen is more than just a clean fuel option; it helps feed half the world by powering the production of fertilizer, and sits at the heart of most plans for a carbon-neutral future.

Yet almost all hydrogen today comes from hydrocarbons, releasing about 2.4 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Demand is expected to soar from 90 million metric tons in 2022 to about 540 million metric tons by 2050, so finding a way to make hydrogen without adding more CO2 is critical. Carbon sequestration and renewable-powered electrolysis can help, but they are not yet cost-competitive.

A research team from the University of Oxford, Durham University, and the University of Toronto points to an overlooked answer: Earth’s own crust. Over the past billion years, the continental crust has generated enough hydrogen to meet human energy needs for roughly 170,000 years. Much of that gas remains locked underground, untouched and emission-free.

Until now, scientists had only scattered measurements of where natural hydrogen collects. The new study outlines a clear “exploration recipe”—the rock types, temperatures, fluids, and geological histories that allow hydrogen to form, migrate, and become trapped in reservoirs we can reach. With that blueprint in hand, industry can start hunting for clean hydrogen reserves worldwide, offering a potential game-changer for energy and climate goals.

Study co-author Professor Jon Gluyas (Durham University) notes: “We have successfully developed an exploration strategy for helium, and a similar ‘first principles’ approach can be taken for hydrogen.”

This research outlines the key ingredients needed to inform an exploration strategy to find different ‘hydrogen systems.’ This includes how much hydrogen is produced and the rock types and conditions these occur in, how the hydrogen migrates underground from these rocks, the conditions that allow a gas field to form, and the conditions that destroy the hydrogen.

Study co-author Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar (University of Toronto) said: “We know, for example, that underground microbes readily feast on hydrogen. Avoiding environments that bring them into contact with the hydrogen is important in preserving hydrogen in economic accumulations.”

The authors outline where understanding of these ingredients is strong, and highlight areas that need more work, such as rock reaction efficiencies and how geological histories can bring the right rocks together with the water that reacts with it.

Some sources of hydrogen gas, such as from the Earth’s mantle, have fueled much speculation and hyperbole, but this research shows that these are not viable sources. Instead, the authors showed that the ingredients for a complete hydrogen system can be found in a range of common geological settings within the crust. Some of these can be geologically quite young, forming hydrogen ‘recently’ (millions to tens of millions of years), others truly ancient (hundreds of millions of years old) – but critically are found globally.

Lead author Professor Chris Ballentine (University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences) said: “Combining the ingredients to find accumulated hydrogen in any of these settings can be likened to cooking a soufflé – get any one of the ingredients, amounts, timing, or temperature wrong and you will be disappointed. One successful exploration recipe that is repeatable will unlock a commercially competitive, low-carbon hydrogen source that would significantly contribute to the energy transition – we have the right experience to combine these ingredients and find that recipe.”

The potential for natural geological hydrogen has motivated the authors to form Snowfox Discovery Ltd., an exploration company with a mission to find societally significant natural hydrogen accumulations.

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