Posted By: 360view
Albanian mine spews hydrogen gas from “Jacuzzi” - 02/10/24 05:31 PM
https://www.science.org/content/article/gusher-gas-deep-mine-stokes-interest-natural-hydrogen
sample quote
Hydrogen hunters are interested in ophiolites because they contain iron-rich rocks from the upper mantle. Water can react with these rocks at high temperatures and pressures to produce significant quantities of hydrogen. The flammable gas was already known to leak into the Bulqizë mine, which has experienced three major explosions, one of them deadly, since 1992.
Laurent Truche, a geochemist at Grenoble Alps University, and colleagues gained access to the mine and traced the flows to their source.
Deep in the mine, nearly 1 kilometer down, they discovered a churning pool of water, a place they would come to call “the jacuzzi.”
Truche shined his headlamp onto bubbles that turned out to be 84% hydrogen–an incredibly pure source. “I realized afterward that what I’d done in this pool was very dangerous,” he says. “The light was not explosion-proof at all, and my head was right above this bubbling spring.”
On its own, the jacuzzi was pumping out 11 tons of hydrogen per year, Truche and colleagues calculated. Based on air samples in other shafts and caverns, they believe the mine is releasing a total of 200 tons of hydrogen per year—enough to fill the Hindenburg zeppelin 10 times over. That flux is about 1000 times greater than those documented from ophiolites in other places, such as Oman, says Yashee Mathur, a graduate student in energy science and engineering at Stanford University who is studying natural hydrogen.
end quote
Obviously, time to get serious.
NASCAR and drag racing need to add hydrogen fueled engine class racing immediately.
Bud Lite should lavishly sponsor.
sample quote
Hydrogen hunters are interested in ophiolites because they contain iron-rich rocks from the upper mantle. Water can react with these rocks at high temperatures and pressures to produce significant quantities of hydrogen. The flammable gas was already known to leak into the Bulqizë mine, which has experienced three major explosions, one of them deadly, since 1992.
Laurent Truche, a geochemist at Grenoble Alps University, and colleagues gained access to the mine and traced the flows to their source.
Deep in the mine, nearly 1 kilometer down, they discovered a churning pool of water, a place they would come to call “the jacuzzi.”
Truche shined his headlamp onto bubbles that turned out to be 84% hydrogen–an incredibly pure source. “I realized afterward that what I’d done in this pool was very dangerous,” he says. “The light was not explosion-proof at all, and my head was right above this bubbling spring.”
On its own, the jacuzzi was pumping out 11 tons of hydrogen per year, Truche and colleagues calculated. Based on air samples in other shafts and caverns, they believe the mine is releasing a total of 200 tons of hydrogen per year—enough to fill the Hindenburg zeppelin 10 times over. That flux is about 1000 times greater than those documented from ophiolites in other places, such as Oman, says Yashee Mathur, a graduate student in energy science and engineering at Stanford University who is studying natural hydrogen.
end quote
Obviously, time to get serious.
NASCAR and drag racing need to add hydrogen fueled engine class racing immediately.
Bud Lite should lavishly sponsor.
