The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) has announced up to $20m in funding to develop technologies that can stimulate the generation of hydrogen within the Earth's subsurface at the lowest cost and environmental impact. This opportunity is driven by recent interest in the discovery of naturally accumulating deposits of subsurface hydrogen known as geologic hydrogen, which could potentially enable the production of enough hydrogen to decarbonise challenging industries.
"ARPA-E supports transformational, impactful energy technologies, so when it comes to geologic hydrogen, we're asking are there disruptive ways to access this hydrogen source and explore the potential,” said ARPA-E Director Evelyn N Wang. "There is significant opportunity to accelerate the development of hydrogen production, and I look forward to the teams pursuing this exploration." Applications are due by 24 October.
DOE’s Office of International Affairs partnered with Oman’s Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources (MEM) to convene a US-Oman Technical Workshop on Geologic Hydrogen in September in Muscat. With speakers on both sides from government, the private sector, and academic, the purpose of the workshop was to share information and ideas about geologic hydrogen and facilitate new policymaking, commercial, and academic partnerships between the two countries on this topic. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between MEM and Eden, a DOE/ARPA-E awardee, regarding the exploration and production of geologic hydrogen in Oman.
