This book is a Weekend Pocketbook on Everything You Should Know About Gold Hydrogen, the naturally occurring hydrogen hidden beneath Earth's surface. We explore why this once-overlooked gas has sparked a new global energy rush, and whether it could become a cheap, clean fuel for the future that saves us from climate change.
What if the next great energy source does not need to be manufactured, but simply found? We begin in Bourakebougou, Mali, where a failed search for water accidentally uncovered a well releasing nearly pure hydrogen. We explore what makes gold hydrogen different from green, blue, and grey hydrogen, and why the possibility of extracting it directly from underground reservoirs has excited scientists, startups, investors, and governments.
How does hydrogen form naturally inside Earth? Why do processes like serpentinization, radiolysis, and deep mantle reactions matter? And if hydrogen is the lightest molecule in the universe, how does it stay trapped underground long enough for us to use it? The book takes us through old Soviet research, forgotten drilling logs in Australia, new discoveries in the Pyrenees, and the search for the next "Saudi Arabia of hydrogen."
