Bill Gates-backed natural hydrogen explorer Koloma raises nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in private finance
Cash pours in after Denver firm awarded $900,000 from US government to artificially stimulate deposits of natural H2
US natural hydrogen explorer Koloma — which has already attracted investment from billionaire Bill Gates — has raised nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in its second funding call, according to reports.
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Koloma was one of ten to win a grant under the Topic G of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) funding stream, to develop technology to “stimulate hydrogen production from mineral deposits found in the subsurface, including developing our understanding of hydrogen-producing geochemical reactions and how to enhance or control the rate of hydrogen”.
According to the DOE, Koloma Labs is developing “geochemical and microbial models” in order to understand the processes that form hydrogen in rock systems, with the ultimate aim of forcing mineral deposits to produce hydrogen that can then be extracted.
“A combination of geochemical, geo-mechanical, and fluid transport models paired with an investigation of naturally occurring microbiology in hydrogen reservoirs seeks to reveal the feasibility of the widespread stimulation of geologic hydrogen in different rock systems,” the department said in its award description.
Also granted $900,000 in the same funding stream was Massachusetts-based Eden Geopower, which was also awarded a second grant of $500,000 in Topic H, to improve hydrogen production methods.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was also awarded $1.3m to develop an artificial intelligence-powered reactor to model stimulated hydrogen production.
“The [winners] will work toward improvements in subsurface transport methods and engineered containment, reservoir monitoring and/or modelling during production and extraction, as well as assessing the risk of hydrogen reservoir development,” the DOE said.
United Airlines Ventures’ (UAV) Sustainable Flight Fund, launched last year with the aim of investing in sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), has been capitalised with $200m from the airline and a further $450,000 from its customers.
The UAV fund is an investor in electrolyser start-up Electric Hydrogen, also backed by Breakthrough Energy.
Key natural hydrogen production processes, environments and locations
There are six known ways in which hydrogen is produced naturally:
Serpentinisation
In which the mineral olivine located in mid-ocean ridges or ophiolites (a geological formation where sections of the Earth’s mantle rise above sea level) is weathered to form hydrogen-rich fluids. This has been seen in the Semail ophiolite, in the Hajar Mountains of Oman. Under pressure and high temperatures, water can react with these iron-rich rocks to produce H2.
Radiolysis of water
Radioactive elements in the Earth’s crust — for example in crystalline basement rocks with high content of uranium, thorium or potassium — decompose water molecules trapped in causing a hydrogen pocket, as happened in South Australia.
Deep degassing
In which “primary” hydrogen (a single hydrogen atom attached to a single carbon atom) escapes from deep within the Earth’s crust. This has been seen in Nebraska, in the US.
Iron reduction and sulphur oxidation
Ferric iron in a black smoker (a subsea hydrothermal vent formed from iron sulphide deposits) is reduced to ferrous iron and hydrogen sulphides.
Thermal decomposition of organic matter
In which ammonium compounds located in deep sendiments decompose under high temperatures to form hydrogen and nitrogen, for example in hydrogen-nitrogen gas seeps in Oman.
Biological activity
Hydrogen is produced by microbes living in the Earth’s crusts, usually co-existing with hydrogen-consuming microbes and found via sediment or aquifers. This has been observed in the coal beds of the Powder River Basin in Montana, US.