Breakthrough Technology Mines Hydrogen From Oil Fields and Oil Sands

Its almost like magic. Just say the right words and you can mine hydrogen from oil fields instead of Petroleum. And hydrogen can be used as a fuel and no carbon emissions are produced when burning it.

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Hydrogen based energy fascinates many people. This is because hydrogen is a remarkable power source that can be used as fuel. It is a bit explosive and hard to store but it doesn't create any carbon emissions when you burn it – only water. All we really need to figure out is how to get and store hydrogen in large amounts.

And part of the problem may have been solved by Canadian expert Ian Gates from the University of Calgary who also works for Proton Technologies Inc. He and his coworkers developed a new way that allows us to mine hydrogen from oil fields and oil sands. This would allow us to use the already known oil sands that are found in incredible numbers for example in Canda or Venezuela. And even better, this could allow us to turn regular old oil fields into hydrogen fields.

When it comes to it, hydrogen could run many vehicles and machines including cars, buses or even trains. We have had the technology for years now. The problem is that the current ways to create hydrogen are very expensive. And the new way created by Gates and his colleagues is cheap in comparison.

The reason the technology works is that because the oil fields where the petroleum is no longer mined still have quite a lot of petroleum in them. And Gates and his team found out that if you pump oxygen into such a field it will increase in temperature. This will make gases with a lot of hydrogen in them release. And then you just need a few special filters to filter the hydrogen out of them.

Mining hydrogen with oxygen just from the oil sands in Alberta alone could provide enough power for Canada for 330 years (at current energy expenditure levels). And without the vast majority of carbon emissions produced.

And to top it all off, Grant Strem the boss of Proton Technologies is already striving to get the new technology to the market. They are not only convinced that they can mine the hydrogen out of the ground while keeping most of the carbon in the ground but they will be capable of producing hydrogen at prices of 10 – 50 cents per kilogram. This is a fraction of the price at which we currently produce petrol and even the current prices for hydrogen which are around 2 dollars per kilogram.

Sources:

• https://phys.org/news/2019-08-scientists-hydrogen-gas-oil-bitumen.html

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