Penn State researchers awarded $1.1M federal grant to research potential of geologic hydrogen

The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) recently awarded a group of Penn State researchers a $1.1 million grant for early-stage research and development into the low-cost, low-emission production of geologic hydrogen.

Funding is through ARPA-E’s Exploratory Topic H: Subsurface Engineering for Hydrogen Reservoir Management that focuses on technologies for the extraction of geologic hydrogen.

Geologic hydrogen is produced through water-rock interactions deep in Earth’s subsurface. The researchers will explore and potentially extract geological hydrogen from its subsurface reservoirs.

Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, can be extracted from biomass, fossil fuels, water and other sources, but requires energy and can release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

“Until now, hydrogen has never been treated as a primary energy resource,” Shimin Liu, co-lead of the research team, said. “Our intent to artificially engineer a geomechanical system that can sustain hydrogen production has never been done before. So, at each step, we will need to assess, evaluate and develop a new process or technology.”

Engineering subsurface hydrogen could potentially provide clean energy and decarbonize energy-intensive industries.

The carbon emissions associated with the production of hydrogen affect color. White and orange hydrogen have been extracted from subsurface sources.

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