This AI Could Unlock A Vast, Untapped, Cheap, & Clean Source Of Energy
This AI Could Unlock A Vast, Untapped, Cheap, & Clean Source Of Energy
Geologic hydrogen could be right at our fingertips.
Renewable energy is both the cheapest and lowest-carbon form of energy we have ever created, but its erratic nature makes it far from ideal. What we really need is something just as cheap and low-carbon, but on demand. Well, a team from MIT is looking to create this just by developing on-tap geological hydrogen using AI and robotics. It sounds like a jargon fruit salad, but it could be the most revolutionary thing happening in energy today. Let me explain.
Let’s start with what geological hydrogen is. Deep underground, where the pressures are high, and the temperatures are higher thanks to geothermal heat, water can react with iron-rich rocks in a peculiar way. This chemical reaction effectively rusting, except the water splits, and its oxygen molecules bind to the iron, and the hydrogen molecules are released. This process is slow, and over millions of years, the hydrogen it releases can accumulate underground in a similar way to natural gas; in fact, one scientist estimates that there could be 10 trillion tons of this geological hydrogen on Earth. Sadly though, much of this is too deep for us to tap into, or it is in a location that is too difficult to extract, like near hydrothermal vents.
Now, in theory, hydrogen is a brilliant zero-carbon fuel. When it burns, it only emits water vapour, and we can pass it through fuel cells to make electricity directly from it with zero emission. But the vast majority of the hydrogen we use comes from steam-reforming natural gas, which releases a lot of carbon dioxide, making it far from eco-friendly. We can negate this by using “green hydrogen”, which uses renewable energy to split water through electrolysis and create oxygen and hydrogen. However, this electrolysis is incredibly inefficient and damn expensive, at around $7 per kg of hydrogen. At this price, hydrogen-powered cars, or hydrogen fuel gas systems, cost significantly more than their fossil fuel counterparts.
This is where this MIT project comes in. You see, rather than trying to tap into the inaccessible geologic hydrogen that already exists on Earth, they are trying to find a way to significantly accelerate the production of geologic hydrogen. That way, all they need are sites with iron-rich rocks and mild geothermal energy, which are a dime a dozen, and they can create an easy-to-access and, therefore, cheap stream of zero carbon hydrogen!
Okay, so how are they going to do that?
Well, they will look for a catalyst that can stimulate or speed up the chemical reaction between the water and the iron-rich rocks. They will do this by using AI and robotics to test different catalysts and simulate what will happen when these potential catalysts are applied to rocks from various regions with different external conditions like temperature and pressure. The AI is the key here. It will look at the team’s test results and combine them with scientific literature to suggest what catalysts they should try next. This way, by going through test cycles of physical testing and AI optimising and then going again, they can incrementally hone in on the perfect catalyst.
The team’s aim is to eventually discover a catalyst that can produce geological hydrogen at a price of only $1 per kg. At that price, hydrogen fuel becomes competitive with natural gas, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles become far cheaper to fuel than combustion engine equivalents, all whilst producing zero emissions.
Now, there is no guarantee the team will find a catalyst cheap enough to enable $1 hydrogen. But if they can, this new-found source of hydrogen could be utterly revolutionary. Let’s not forget that using this catalyst will require lots of drilling, extraction, storage and transportation, which we already do at scale with the oil and gas industry. It shouldn’t be difficult to repurpose this infrastructure to enable ultra-rapid deployment of geological hydrogen “mining”. We can also repurpose old natural gas energy infrastructure and easily convert it to run on this hydrogen. So, if this MIT team can meet their goals, they really could create the ultimate on-tap low-carbon energy, utterly revolutionise the energy industry and save the world from us humans.
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Sources: Hydrogen Insight, MIT, Yale Environment 360