When members of the Laboratoire GeoRessources of the University of Lorraine and of France’s National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) probed the subsoil in Lorraine, in Southeastern France, they hit a potential deposit of naturally occurring, or white hydrogen. In the sub-soil of this region, still badly hit by deindustrialisation, could be hidden nothing less than the world’s biggest known supply of the gas to date.
Till now most white hydrogen discoveries have been made by accident by geologists on the hunt for fossil fuels. The team had set out to assess the level of methane gas in the Lorraine sub-soil, to make an estimate of the total quantity present and to see if local production was viable. To achieve this objective, they needed to develop new technology to sound out, in situ and on a continuous basis, rock formations from the Carboniferous period, the geological era from 359 to 299 million years ago. Quite an accomplishment!
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