{"id":211658,"date":"2024-08-21T05:25:21","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T05:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/"},"modified":"2024-08-21T05:25:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T05:25:21","slug":"the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em><span class=\"lead-in-text-callout\">This story originally<\/span> appeared on<\/em> <em>WIRED Italia<\/em> <em>and has been translated from Italian.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">In the quest to decarbonize the world, one element gets a lot of hype: hydrogen. \u201cIf you burn it, it produces only water, with no impact on the environment,\u201d explains Alberto Vitale Brovarone, a professor in the Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Bologna in Italy. Hydrogen\u2019s supporters believe it can be a solution for cleaning up everything from transport to agriculture to heavy industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">But its green credentials only stack up if you can produce it without emitting carbon. And this is why some are getting very excited about geological or \u201cgold\u201d hydrogen, the name given to the element when it forms naturally underground. This can happen as a result of a chemical reaction between water and iron-rich rocks, or by radiolysis, the splitting of water molecules by radiation into hydrogen and oxygen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cCompared to other types of hydrogen, it does not require energy to be produced,\u201d says Vitale Brovarone. He therefore predicts a gold hydrogen rush is on the horizon. The problem is we know very little about the element when it forms naturally underground, and so the research world is in a race against time to find out more before hasty and blind mass mining begins. \u201cFrom the industry\u2019s point of view, it simply has to be extracted,\u201d says Vitale Brovarone. \u201cInstead, first it has to be understood how simply that can be done and with what consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Vitale Brovarone and his colleagues believed Greenland could help answer these questions, and so they organized a special mission to the Arctic territory to hunt for more information, as part of the five-year <strong>ERC CoG DeepSeep<\/strong> program funded by the European Union.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Alongside Vitale Brovarone were four scientists from the University of Bologna, one from the Institute of Geosciences and Georesources at Italy\u2019s National Research Center, and one from the University of Copenhagen. They spent 10 days in this land of nearly 2-billion-year-old rocks, having spent six months preparing their mission using maps and satellite data. Despite their meticulous planning, they had to be adaptable. Due to \u201cunforeseen icebergs\u201d the researchers had to change areas, while at one point a bear spotted in their vicinity forced them to seek shelter in a school. But in the end, the trip was worthwhile: It gave them samples rich in H<sub>2<\/sub> to study.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Across the world, gold hydrogen is popping up where we don\u2019t expect it, creating questions about the dynamics by which the element accumulates in reservoirs and the role it plays in subsurface ecosystems. There are already some concerns: If the hydrogen reacts with geological substrates or is processed by certain microorganisms, geological hydrogen can produce methane or hydrogen sulfide. Vitale Brovarone uses these two examples to explain to why diving headfirst into extracting gold hydrogen risks creating new problems instead of solving existing ones, and why more information is needed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Since we do not fully know what has been regulating the presence of H<sub>2 <\/sub>rocks for millions or billions of years, it is better to wait before breaking them by extracting the element, Vitale Brovarone says. The same goes for storing artificially produced hydrogen in reserves underground, he says. The idea of being able to do so has already excited industry, prompting them to move in a timeframe that is not compatible with what the research world needs to understand how the gas behaves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cWe travel on different lines and at different pace,\u201d he says. \u201cWe need to understand how hydrogen behaves in nature, because many dynamics only emerge after years. Industry would like quick and decisive answers; science needs time, and also funds, which, for hydrogen, are still scarce.\u201d Unlike France, Australia, and the United States, which have their sights set on harvesting gold hydrogen, Italy has not yet invested in gathering it, preferring to bet on hydrogen production instead. Thanks in part to the University of Bologna expedition, however, Italy becomes one of the few countries in the world looking to understand more about it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. In the quest to decarbonize the world, one element gets a lot of hype: hydrogen. \u201cIf you burn it, it produces only water, with no impact on the environment,\u201d explains Alberto Vitale Brovarone, a professor in the Department of Biological, Geological, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. In the quest to decarbonize the world, one element gets a lot of hype: hydrogen. \u201cIf you burn it, it produces only water, with no impact on the environment,\u201d explains Alberto Vitale Brovarone, a professor in the Department of Biological, Geological, and [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-08-21T05:25:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/21\\\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/21\\\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\"},\"headline\":\"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-21T05:25:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/21\\\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":688,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/21\\\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/21\\\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/21\\\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-21T05:25:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/21\\\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/21\\\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/08\\\/21\\\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\",\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ghana News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/author\\\/ghanamma\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen - Ghanamma.com","og_description":"This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. In the quest to decarbonize the world, one element gets a lot of hype: hydrogen. \u201cIf you burn it, it produces only water, with no impact on the environment,\u201d explains Alberto Vitale Brovarone, a professor in the Department of Biological, Geological, and [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/","og_site_name":"Ghanamma.com","article_published_time":"2024-08-21T05:25:21+00:00","author":"Ghana News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ghana News","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/"},"author":{"name":"Ghana News","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#\/schema\/person\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5"},"headline":"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen","datePublished":"2024-08-21T05:25:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/"},"wordCount":688,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/","name":"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-08-21T05:25:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#\/schema\/person\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/08\/21\/the-quest-to-uncover-the-secrets-of-gold-hydrogen\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Quest to Uncover the Secrets of Gold Hydrogen"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#\/schema\/person\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5","name":"Ghana News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ghana News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/author\/ghanamma\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}