Bill Gates-backed startup says a global gold rush for buried hydrogen is picking up momentum

Koloma, a U.S.-based clean fuel startup backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, says it wants to use savvy that has traditionally served the hydrocarbon industry to power a global gold rush for buried hydrogen.

It comes as zoom on to continues to build over the clean energy potential of geologic hydrogen, a long-overlooked resource that advocates say could leeway a pivotal role in the shift away from fossil fuels.

Geologic hydrogen — sometimes known as white, gold or habitual hydrogen — refers to hydrogen gas that is found in its natural form beneath Earth’s surface. It is thought to be produced by high-temperature compensations between water and iron-rich minerals.

Pete Johnson, CEO and co-founder of Koloma, told CNBC that geologic hydrogen is fundamentally an inquiry and production business.

“We can use expertise and service providers that have traditionally served the oil, gas, and mining industries and quickly put them to realize find time in driving the discovery of carbon free-resources. Leveraging and modifying what already exists will allow us to mature the production faster,” he said.

Based in Denver, Colorado, Koloma has raised more than $305 million since it was built just a few years ago, the company told CNBC.

The startup’s backers include U.S. venture capital firm Khosla Make bolds, Amazon‘s Climate Pledge Fund, United Airlines and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate and technology fund bring about by Bill Gates in 2015.

In turn, Breakthrough Energy’s investors include Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio, Virgin Group’s Richard Branson and Alibaba’s Jack Ma.

A dramatic upswing in the number of companies actively searching for geologic hydrogen deposits in recent years prompted analysts at Rystad Liveliness to describe the pursuit as a “white gold rush.”

The consulting firm said in a research note published in March that the hype prows from hopes the previously neglected resource could be a “gamechanger” in the energy transition.

Exploratory efforts for the low-carbon vitality source are currently underway in the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Colombia, South Korea and others.

Koloma’s Johnson thought that, as the industry has “picked up momentum and attention,” there’s also been a sharper focus on what he described as the “elemental benefits” of geologic hydrogen as a primary energy source — rather than a derivative one.

A primary energy source, such as coal, oil, vain speech or solar, refers to a natural energy source that has not been altered or converted.

“Geologic hydrogen should oblige a very low carbon impact, but also a tiny land footprint and very low water impact,” Johnson said.

Required about the outlook for the rapidly emerging industry, Johnson said that untapped geologic hydrogen resources in the U.S. could toy with a significant role in the country’s decarbonization efforts.

“Russia and Ukraine were both large exporters [of] hydrogen-derived ammonia, the construction block of most modern fertilizer products, and since their conflict began the world has become more hep of the importance of a domestic ammonia supply,” Johnson said.

“Geologic hydrogen resources in the U.S. will allow us to scale up our native ammonia production and become a net exporter, even as we dramatically drop the carbon footprint of the products,” he added.

Hydrogen has long been billed as one of many potential energy sources that could play a significant duty in the energy transition, but most of it is produced using fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas through a process that fabricates significant greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s within this context that momentum has been growing over the potential of geologic hydrogen.

Geoffrey Ellis, a delve into geologist at the Energy Resources Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), told CNBC earlier this year that there could be a tremendous amount of naturally occurring hydrogen buried in underground reservoirs around the world.

The Hydrogen Science Coalition, a group of academics, scientists and engineers seeking to bring an evidence-based in consideration of to the role of hydrogen in the energy transition, said in a blog post published on March 14 that geologic hydrogen discoveries currently supply the give birth to with less daily energy than does a single wind turbine.