Paul Rodden • Season: 2025 • Episode: 412
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Welcome to The Hydrogen Podcast!
Today on The Hydrogen Podcast, we dive deep into Sandia National Laboratories’ groundbreaking report: Exploring Geologic Hydrogen: A New Frontier for Affordable, Reliable Energy Security.
🔹 What is Geologic Hydrogen?
Learn about naturally occurring and stimulated hydrogen formed through serpentinization, radiolysis, and mantle degassing — and why it could reshape America’s energy future.
🔹 Current Research and Challenges
We break down the technical hurdles: subsurface access, storage limitations, detection, and reservoir management. Plus, what the U.S. needs to do to safely scale geologic hydrogen extraction.
🔹 Economic Potential and Environmental Benefits
At $1–$2/kg, geologic hydrogen could slash hydrogen costs by 60–80% compared to electrolysis! Hear how it could create 5,000–10,000 jobs and power 20,000 MW of clean energy, with zero NOx, SOx, and PM2.5 emissions.
🌎 We explore how geologic hydrogen could secure U.S. energy independence, decarbonize heavy industries, and power the future—including energy-hungry AI data centers.
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Paul Rodden
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Transcript:
Today, I’ll be reviewing a recent report from Sandia National Laboratories titled Exploring Geologic Hydrogen: A New Frontier for Affordable, Reliable Energy Security by Franek Hasiuk and Donald M. Conley. Geologic hydrogen, sourced naturally or stimulated from the Earth’s subsurface, could provide a low-cost, abundant energy source. I’ll focus on its technical aspects, the research needed to make it viable, and its economic potential, with a brief look at environmental impacts. I’ll break this down into three segments: the basics of geologic hydrogen, current research and challenges, and the path forward with economic implications. Let’s get started with what geologic hydrogen is and why it matters.”
The Sandia report highlights the growing excitement around geologic hydrogen, a resource that could bolster U.S. energy security. So, what is geologic hydrogen? It refers to hydrogen sourced from underground—either naturally occurring (natural hydrogen) or produced through engineered processes (stimulated hydrogen). The report outlines three natural processes that generate hydrogen in the Earth’s subsurface: hydrothermal alteration, radiolysis, and deep mantle degassing.
Hydrothermal alteration, or serpentinization, is the primary source. It occurs when water reacts with iron-rich rocks like ultramafic rocks, converting iron 2+ to iron 3+ and producing hydrogen as a byproduct. For example, rocks like kimberlite—shown in the report’s top photo with pink epoxy highlighting permeability pathways—can be stimulated to release hydrogen. Radiolysis happens when radioactive elements like uranium in quartz-feldspar-rich rocks split water molecules, while deep mantle degassing releases hydrogen along faults, though in smaller amounts. Once formed, hydrogen can accumulate in subsurface reservoirs, similar to natural gas, making it potentially easy to extract using existing oil and gas technologies. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that geologic hydrogen exists in quantities large enough to significantly contribute to the U.S. energy portfolio, with prospectivity maps showing high potential in the Midcontinent Rift—think Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa.
Historically, hydrogen has been found in wells where they were attempting to drill for oil, gas, or water. A notable example is a 1987 discovery in Mali, where a well produced 97% hydrogen, powering a village’s electricity for over 30 years. Globally, hydrogen has been observed in wells worldwide, often alongside methane or helium, as shown in Figure 1 of the report. The report also notes hydrogen’s historical use in ‘town gas’—a mix of natural gas and hydrogen for municipal heating before the 20th-century switch to natural gas-only grids. Today, geologic hydrogen could support energy-intensive industries like AI data centers, which are straining current energy demands, per Goldman Sachs (2024).
Economically, the report suggests geologic hydrogen could be a low-cost option. Figure 5 cites estimates from Ball and Czado (2022) and the IEA (2020), showing geologic hydrogen at $1-$2/kg, compared to $5-$6/kg for electrolysis-based hydrogen in 2025. For a 1,000 MW plant needing 50,000 tons of hydrogen/year (1 kg/50 miles, 60% efficiency), that’s $50-$100 million/year versus $250-$300 million for electrolysis—a 60-80% cost reduction. However, these estimates assume large-scale extraction, which isn’t yet proven, so we need to be cautious about over-optimism. Still, geologic hydrogen’s potential to provide affordable energy is clear, setting the stage for the research challenges I’ll discuss next.
Let’s dive into the current state of geologic hydrogen research and the challenges we face, as outlined in the Sandia report. Interest in geologic hydrogen has surged—40 companies were searching for natural hydrogen deposits in 2023, up from just 10 in 2020, per Rystad Energy. In the U.S., exploration is focused on the Midcontinent Rift in Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, with companies like Koloma raising over $300 million, including from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy. The DOE’s ARPA-E has funded $20 million across 16 projects to stimulate geologic hydrogen production, while national labs like Sandia are studying production mechanisms and storage.
The report highlights discoveries like the natural flame on Mount Chimera in Turkey, a hydrogen-methane seep burning for centuries, which sparked interest in a 2023 Science article by Hand. The USGS has released a prospectivity map (Figure 3), identifying high-potential areas based on rock types, migration routes, and reservoir structures. However, challenges remain. Hydrogen hasn’t been widely detected in past drilling because it wasn’t tested for—it burns like methane, so separate tests weren’t necessary. Plus, hydrogen in hydrocarbon deposits may be consumed, upgrading hydrocarbons into shorter chains, per USGS findings. The best deposits might be in igneous and metamorphic rocks, which are rarely drilled for gases. Storage is another hurdle—only three salt caverns store hydrogen in the U.S., compared to over 400 for natural gas, though new facilities are under construction in Texas and Utah. The DOE’s SHASTA project is addressing storage challenges, studying hydrogen flow in reservoirs.
Briefly, on the environmental side, geologic hydrogen offers benefits at extraction and use, producing no NOx, SOx, or PM2.5, unlike hydrocarbon-based hydrogen production, which emits 1.5 million tons of NOx and 500,000 tons of PM2.5 annually in the U.S., per EPA data. A 1,000 MW plant using 50,000 tons of geologic hydrogen could avoid 2 million tons of NOx and 1 million tons of SOx compared to coal. However, scaling production and ensuring safe storage are critical to realizing these benefits without unintended impacts.
Economically, repurposing existing infrastructure—like oil and gas wells—could fast-track geologic hydrogen to market, saving $500 million in infrastructure costs for a 10,000-ton/year project (assuming $50/kg infrastructure cost, DOE estimates). But the technology for large-scale stimulation is unproven, and costs could rise by 20-30% if new drilling methods are needed, a risk we must critically assess. The potential to support rural economies through taxes on production adds an economic incentive for further investment, but the path forward requires significant R&D, which I’ll explore next.
The Sandia report outlines four research priorities to make geologic hydrogen a reality: subsurface reservoir management, subsurface access, systems analysis, and hydrogen sensing. Let’s break these down and explore their economic impacts.
First, subsurface reservoirs. We need to better understand how hydrogen is generated and stored—analyzing rock types like kimberlite for their mineralogical properties and studying hydrogen generation at the molecular level. National test beds could provide data on reservoir conditions, guiding exploration. Second, subsurface access. New drilling methods are needed to reach deeper, harder rocks—potentially borrowing from geothermal and nuclear waste disposal research. This could also enable large-scale storage in porous media like sandstones, which make up 90% of current gas storage. Third, systems analysis. We need infrastructure to capture, process, and transport hydrogen, adapting techno-economic models to ensure affordability. Finally, sensing hydrogen. Advanced sensors—airborne or space-based—could detect hydrogen seeps, guiding exploration and ensuring engineered systems don’t leak.
The report notes hydrogen’s flammability risks but argues they’re manageable with existing safety standards, similar to gasoline or natural gas, which have been safely handled for decades. For example, hydrogen has been stored in aboveground tanks and salt caverns, and transported by truck and pipeline, with incidents no more severe than other industrial activities.
Economically, these advancements could make geologic hydrogen a cornerstone of U.S. energy security. At $1-$2/kg, producing 1 million tons/year—enough for 20,000 MW of power—could generate $1-$2 billion in revenue, creating 5,000-10,000 jobs in exploration and infrastructure, per industry benchmarks. The DOE’s H2@Scale initiative (Figure 6) overlooks subsurface sources, missing a chance to integrate geologic hydrogen into the broader hydrogen economy. Repurposing infrastructure could save $1 billion for a 20,000-ton/year project, but unproven stimulation technologies might increase costs by 20-30% if new systems are needed, a risk we must carefully consider. Geologic hydrogen’s potential to provide baseload power for remote communities or critical mineral extraction makes it a high-reward opportunity, especially for energy-intensive sectors like AI data centers, which are driving a 160% increase in power demand, per Goldman Sachs (2024).
Alright, that’s it for me, everyone. If you have a second, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a good review on whatever platform you listen to. Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google, YouTube, etc. That would be a tremendous help to the show. And as always if you ever have any feedback, you are welcome to email me directly at info@thehydrogepodcast.com. So until next time, keep your eyes up and honor one another.
