RAISE: CET: Natural hydrogen and microbial life in the deep subsurface of midcontinent USA impacting geological production and storage

This project is jointly funded by the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and funds allocated to Clean Energy Technology Initiative investments. This Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) award is made in response to Dear Colleague Letter 23-109, as part of the NSF-wide Clean Energy Technology initiative.

Geological processes in the earth's crust create underground deposits of hydrogen gas, which could be a major untapped clean energy resource for the U.S. and the world. However, little is known about how this hydrogen is produced, how it migrates, and whether it accumulates in big enough deposits to be used for clean energy. Because hydrogen is a gas, it escapes the subsurface with ease and does not accumulate underground in the exact same way as water and petroleum, which are far better understood.

It also reacts chemically with rocks, soil, and water, and it can be consumed or created by bacteria. The team will conduct a multi-pronged study to better understand subsurface hydrogen in Nebraska, at locations where geologic hydrogen has been found in the past. They will collect water, soil, and rock samples, perform laboratory tests on these materials, and do calculations to better understand how hydrogen moves through the subsurface; and how effectively it can be stored underground.

The team will also use DNA testing to identify bacteria in subsurface materials; and will perform calculations based on physics, chemistry, and biology to see whether these bacteria promote or hinder hydrogen storage, and whether they cause hydrogen to be lost as it migrates underground. Outcomes from this project will help with discovery, assessment, and use of naturally occurring hydrogen in Nebraska and elsewhere in the world.

Furthermore, a better understanding of fundamental processes along with preliminary evaluations of the natural H2 potential will be coupled with future field-based research and the development of large-scale hydrogen hub projects associated with the research team’s jurisdiction. In addition to the research, the proposed study will contribute to enhancing the education capacity at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln via several proposed activities.

The underlying central hypothesis of this project is that specific geomechanical and biogeochemical conditions exist limiting the loss and consumption of naturally generated H2, which in turn, can lead to geologically trapped H2 at an economically meaningful scale in the mid-continent subsurface. The overall objective of this study is to advance understanding of geological hydrogen (natural and engineered systems) in the midcontinent deep subsurface to understand both biological and abiotic processes that contribute to seepage, trapping, and production or loss.

To achieve the overall objective, the scope of the research objectives is as follows: (1) Elucidate the transport and accumulation of natural hydrogen in soils and rocks via laboratory tests and field monitoring at the study site near the Midcontinent Rift (in Nebraska), (2) Identify geochemistry of the subsurface fluids and minerals that can support microbial life including hydrogenotrophs, living in the deep subsurface environment, and (3) Integrate two salient phenomena, hydrogen transport and abiotic/biotic reactions, to upscale the study via numerical modeling. In doing so, the project will yield understanding of the flow and interaction of geologic hydrogen with surroundings via the combined efforts of laboratory tests, numerical studies, and field monitoring, and thus will test the project’s central hypothesis.

Eventually, this study will establish a strong foundation to make predictions about sources of natural H2, and thus achieve the long-term goal of producing natural H2 at economically viable scales from the Midcontinent Rift system in the USA.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.