In a surprise discovery, scientists have identified an enormous deposit of white hydrogen beneath the town of Folschviller in northeastern France. The find, which could be worth close to €85 trillion, has the potential to reshape the nation’s emission-free energy strategies for decades to come.

White hydrogen is being touted as the clean energy source of the future. It can be burned like fossil fuels but doesn’t produce the same unwanted carbon dioxide – the only byproducts it creates are water and heat, making it an incredibly promising and affordable option.

A huge deposit of the natural gas was recently discovered 1.25 kilometres beneath the small town of Folschviller in the Moselle department of the Grand Est by scientists from the GeoRessources laboratory and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) who were originally looking for methane when they stumbled across the reserve. The find is estimated to contain 46 million tonnes of white hydrogen.

With a projected value of approximately €84.6 trillion, it is equivalent to more than half of the world’s annual grey hydrogen production but is crucially without the associated environmental concerns. Unlike grey hydrogen that is derived from fossil fuels or green hydrogen, which is generated using renewable energy, white hydrogen is a naturally occurring element that does not require energy-intensive processing.

“Our research suggests that natural hydrogen could be far more abundant than previously thought,” said GeoRessources scientist Dr. Jacques Pironon in comments to Euro Weekly News. “If we can find efficient ways to extract and use it, we may have a powerful new tool in the fight against climate change.”

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Hydrogen in various forms is already an essential component in industries such as chemical production and fertiliser manufacturing, and its role is set to expand into sectors like steel production. Additionally, it serves as an effective means of storing electricity generated from renewable sources through a process called power-to-gas (PtG) or hydrogen storage, which involves converting excess electrical energy into hydrogen gas, ensuring a stable supply when solar and wind power are insufficient.

The high cost of green hydrogen production—€5 per kilo versus €0.50 for white hydrogen—and the CO₂ pollution associated with grey hydrogen have long posed challenges, but white hydrogen presents a cleaner and more cost-effective alternative.

As such, the Folschviller discovery is expected to spur further geological explorations for white hydrogen reserves, potentially transforming the domestic and global energy market by reducing dependence on fossil fuels for a cleaner and more sustainable future.

However, there are challenges to consider. Further research is needed to address certain issues associated with this type of hydrogen. Concerns include a lack of data on what happens if leaks occur into the atmosphere, as there is a possibility that white hydrogen could reduce the concentration of molecules that destroy greenhouse gases in the open air, thus counteracting its environmental benefits.

Another issue is accessibility. Most natural hydrogen stores are believed to be in difficult-to-reach offshore locations, but promising deposits—aside from France’s—have been discovered in Australia, Eastern Europe, Oman, Spain, the US and Mali in West Africa, offering a glimmer of hope on this front.

White hydrogen also takes up a large amount of space in gas form and requires a temperature of -253°C to be liquefied, which could turn out to be prohibitively expensive.

Despite these obstacles, white hydrogen could be the game-changer the world has been looking for, offering a clean and inexpensive solution to the current energy challenges faced by people across the globe.

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Photo source: Mairie de Folschviller