A groundbreaking study reveals how natural clean hydrogen, buried deep in Earth’s crust, could fuel a greener future.
Scientists have cracked the “recipe” for finding underground hydrogen, identifying the geological conditions that allow it to form, rise, and stay trapped until it’s tapped. Like baking a perfect soufflé, it all comes down to getting the ingredients and timing just right. If harnessed effectively, this natural hydrogen could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and power a more sustainable world.
Clean hydrogen could play a major role in building a greener, more sustainable future—and it turns out, there’s plenty of it hidden deep within the Earth’s crust. But locating it isn’t simple. Finding the right conditions where this gas forms and survives depends entirely on the surrounding geology.
Now, a group of scientists, including experts from our Earth Sciences department, has uncovered the key “ingredients” needed to pinpoint these underground hydrogen hotspots.
This discovery could be a game-changer for identifying and tapping into naturally occurring clean hydrogen reserves.
>> In Other News: XCF Global and Focus Impact BH3 Acquisition Company Announce Closing of Business Combination
The researchers explored how hydrogen gas is produced deep underground, how it travels through rock layers, and what allows it to become trapped in pockets, or escape entirely.
They compared the process to baking a soufflé. Just like a delicate dish that depends on precise amounts, timing, and temperature, the formation of clean hydrogen relies on getting every condition exactly right.
Clean hydrogen behaves in a similar way to other gases. Once it has been generated in the Earth’s crust, it rises towards the surface.
Along the way, it may become trapped by an impermeable layer of rock and accumulate underground, forming a gas field. It is accessed by drilling and produced from wells.
The ingredients for this “hydrogen recipe” – referred to as ‘gold’ or ‘white’ hydrogen – can be found in many different types of geological settings around the world.
Some are relatively young, just a few million years old, while others are hundreds of millions of years old.
Hydrogen has the potential to power vehicles and industry, generate electricity, and heat our homes.
There are many ways to obtain hydrogen, but currently a lot of the methods are not particularly clean in environmental terms.
As this clean hydrogen is generated by the natural geochemical processes in the Earth’s crust, it could help us transition away from fossil fuels and towards a greener future.
The study was published on May 13 in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment and involved Professor Jon Gluyas from our Department of Earth Sciences and Durham Energy Institute, with colleagues at the University of Oxford and the University of Toronto.
The researchers from Durham and Oxford universities are involved in exploration company, Snowfox Discovery, which aims to find societally significant hydrogen accumulations.
Follow the money flow of climate, technology, and energy investments to uncover new opportunities and jobs.
Inside This Issue 💧 Blue Hydrogen Just Won 2025: 10x More Than Green ✈️ Houston American Energy Advances Development of Sustainable Aviation Fuel ⛏️ Max Power Expands Natural Hydrogen Discovery Po...
Inside This Issue ⚡ Google's Power Play: First CCS Deal Reshapes Energy 🌎 True North Carbon's Tamarack Project, Canada's Largest Single-Technology Direct Air Capture Deployment, Achieves First Cap...
Inside This Issue 💰 The $27/ton Question: What Makes a Carbon Removal Credit Worth 3x More? 🛢️ EPA Issues Three Class VI Permits to ExxonMobil in Jefferson County, Texas 🌍 UN Endorses First Articl...
BILBAO, Spain — H2SITE, the deep-tech start-up revolutionizing high-purity hydrogen production through cutting-edge palladium membrane technology, is scaling up its industrial presence with project...
CCS+ Initiative and Puro.earth Join Forces to Integrate Carbon Credit Methodologies and Scale CCS
Today, the CCS+ Initiative and Puro.earth (Puro), a leading standard and registry for durable carbon removal, announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Through this strat...
October 27, 2025 Company to supply critical compression equipment for ammonia production and CO2 transportation, and a steam turbine-driven power generation generator technology Facility to produ...
BUFFALO, N.Y., Oct. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Buffalo Biodiesel Inc., a leading recycler of used cooking oil (UCO) and a pioneer in renewable feedstock production, recently announced that it has suc...
Follow the money flow of climate, technology, and energy investments to uncover new opportunities and jobs.