Gates and Bezos backed company throws weight behind white hydrogen

Investors have been pouring money into startups focused on naturally occurring H2

Investors have been pouring their attention and funds into the potential of white hydrogen, the type of H2 that is naturally occurring underground.

Green H2 had been making all the clean energy headlines

Green H2 is the form made by using electrolyzers powered by renewable energy. It had been viewed as among the – if not the – top way to obtain the clean fuel.  That said, within recent years, the promise of underground stores of naturally occurring H2, also known as white hydrogen, has been growing. Previously, it was widely accepted that H2 wasn’t available in any practical quantities underground, and that if it was, it would not be financially feasible to find it. However, after a handful of underground stores have been found in recent years and technology has been fine-tuned to more precisely locate other potential spots, white hydrogen appears much more promising.

Investors haven’t failed to notice the promise of white hydrogen

As much as green H2 still holds promise, it can be extremely expensive to produce when compared to the extraction of fossil fuels from the ground. White hydrogen would provide an option to use similar extraction concepts currently used for extracting natural gas. This form of geologic H2 was first discovered in quantity underground in 2012 in Mali, where a store of almost pure natural H2 as discovered by oil and gas workers while they were digging a borehole. Since that time, geologists have been working on developing and using technology to attempt to find other deposits in various places around the world. It occurs underground due to a reaction between rocks containing iron and water. As the water corrodes the iron, hydrogen bubbles form underground. Over time, these can lead to deposits of varying size. Due to the fact that this reaction continues to occur, it means that white hydrogen slowly but continually replenishes. This type of H2 is mainly found in offshore locations without any practical means of access.  That said, there have been a number of other deposits that have been located since that original find in Mali in 2012.  These include deposits in France, Spain, and other places in Europe, as well as in Oman and in the United States.

Deposits found in 2024

One major discovery was found earlier this year in the Lorraine mining basin in France. This find helped to spike interest in white hydrogen, particularly among investors looking to put their money into a source of clean energy. Last year, the National Centre for Scientific Research in France was four years into conducting its Regalor Project.  That said, when the researchers drilled, they discovered that there were deposits throughout the region that could be used for obtaining white hydrogen that could be a part of the clean energy transition.

Investors are looking for white hydrogen opportunities

One prime example is Koloma, a clean fuel startup from the United States backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.  Recently, it announced that it would be using its hydrocarbons expertise to look for large deposits of white hydrogen. It was first established only a few years ago and has raised more than $305 million in that time.  Koloma’s co-founder and CEO Pete Johnson explained that “We can use expertise and service providers that have traditionally served the oil, gas, and mining industries and quickly put them to work in driving the discovery of carbon-free resources. Leveraging and modifying what already exists will allow us to mature the industry faster.” The trend has been referred to as the “white gold rush”, as investors and governments alike seek to get in early before what could be a massive growth in demand for much less expensive H2.