COULD THIS BE THE HOLY GRAIL ?

For a long time, many scientists thought large deposits of white hydrogen weren’t possible – but now, millions of megatons of hydrogen are thought to be lodged in Earth’s crust. This has the potential to supply global hydrogen demand for thousands of years, said USGS research geologist Geoffrey Ellis, a leading expert on white hydrogen. Pioneers in white hydrogen also claim it could be produced for much lower costs than its cousins. It will be twice as cheap as the cheapest green hydrogen, according to Natural Hydrogen Energy, a US-based startup. Until recently, it went relatively unnoticed that white hydrogen was already in real-world operation. Bourakébougou, a remote village in the landlocked West African nation of Mali, has powered its electricity supply with white hydrogen for more than a decade. The discovery was made after a local businessman brought in a Canadian consulting firm to test a water well that had caught fire when a worker lit a cigarette near it. There are numerous disadvantages, discovering new sources, transport due to it lightness and prone to leaks but regardless, there is no shortage of interest in white hydrogen as a possibly limitless source of clean energy, and the dollars are pouring in. Denver-based Koloma won $91m in investment from a group that includes Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Venture. One investment firm valued white hydrogen as a $75bn industry by 2030.