The development of overseas exploration of white hydrogen and implications for China

Hydrogen energy is considered to be the cleanest energy and will play an increasingly important role in the future energy field. At present, it is only regarded as a secondary energy and does not have the characteristics of large scale and stability. Besides, most hydrogen energies are produced from fossil energies, which emit a lot of greenhouse gases. Because the environment problems caused by excessive dependence on fossil energies, it has become much important to study geological hydrogen (known as “white or native hydrogen”). With the deepening of research, hundreds of white hydrogen discoveries with high content have been reported worldwide, especially, the discovery in the Lorrain Basin, France. It is estimated that the resource is about ranging 6 million to 250 million tons. White hydrogen has regarded as the key energy to combat the climate crisis. Based on the previous studies, the hydrogen color spectrum is introduced. Compared with hydrogen produced by other routes, white hydrogen has three natural advantages of zero carbon, very low production cost and renewable. According to the progress of international exploration for white hydrogen, it is concluded that the Earth has a complete hydrogen production mechanism. Relevant studies have shown that white hydrogen with high content is widely distributed in rifts, plate subduction zones, and Precambrian crystalline basement. Both the resource and application prospects of white hydrogen are broad and the United States and Europe and other countries are stepping up the layout of white hydrogen exploration. According to the previous research, China also has the geological conditions for the white hydrogen. However, compared with other countries, the research work on white hydrogen needs to be improved. Based on this, three suggestions are put forward for white hydrogen work in China, which are launching white hydrogen investigation pilot projects in Songliao Basin and Qaidam Basin, strengthening comprehensive research and theoretical technology research and development of white hydrogen and also building a high−quality white hydrogen talent team.