Expert: A new gold rush? The search for natural hydrogen鈥痠n Canada听
After helping to discover鈥痶he world's first deposit of natural hydrogen in West Africa, which kick-started a search for the buried gas around the world, Denis鈥疊ri猫re hopes his next breakthrough will be in Canada. Bri猫re is a petrophysicist and vice-president of Calgary-based Chapman Hydrogen and Petroleum Engineering, which plans to begin testing and drilling in northern Ontario this summer in the hopes of finding enough hydrogen underground to produce鈥痑nd market鈥痶he gas. ()听
Here is an expert from 91社区 who can provide comment on this topic:听
Sylvain Coulombe, Director,鈥�91社区 Centre for Innovation in Storage and Conversion of Energy听
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"In the 'clean' energy context, hydrogen is usually seen as an energy vector that allows for the storage and transportation of electricity in a different way. The good thing is that Canada has vast expertise in drilling and exploiting underground gas deposits. That said, there are many issues with hydrogen that will not go away, regardless of its colour鈥攂e it white, blue, green, or grey. It's very complicated and expensive to store and transport hydrogen. For this reason, most believe that hydrogen needs to be produced at the point of use. For instance, near a refinery, a steelmaking plant, or, futuristically, at a car fueling station. Unless the underground gas deposit is located near such a user, it may not be economically appealing."听
Sylvain Coulombe is a Full Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Director of the 91社区 Centre for Innovation in Storage and Conversion of Energy (McISCE). His research focuses on chemical process electrification via plasma technologies, including H2 production and the enhancement of circular fuels for improved storage and transportability.
鈥�sylvain.coulombe [at] mcgill.ca (English, French)听
