Accelerating exploration and extraction of renewable natural hydrogen

October 13th, 2023

R&D Focus Areas:
Natural hydrogen

Lead Organisation:
H2EX Ltd

Partners:
Black & Veatch Australia Pty Ltd, the University of Adelaide, Australian National University

Status:
Active

Start date:
August 2023

Completion date:
June 2025

Key contacts:
H2EX – Contact Us – H2EX

Funding:
AUD$863,000 – CRC-P Round 14

Project total cost:
AUD$2,086,100

Project summary description:
In June 2022, H2EX was granted exploration license 691 (“PEL 691”) for an area covering 5,991 square kilometres (sq km) in the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. PEL 691 is located on south-eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula and includes the towns of Cleve in the north and Tumby Bay to the south.

In December 2022, CSIRO completed a desktop study that examined hydrogen seeps and migration pathways in the Eyre Peninsula. Building on this research CSIRO and H2EX conducted a gas soil sampling campaign in May 2023 where high-confidence hydrogen seeps were observed. In late 2024, CSIRO will conduct fluid inclusion analysis to detect hydrogen on historical drill cores in the PEL 691 vicinity.

This project, a collaboration between H2EX, Black and Veatch, the University of Adelaide and Australian National University, which received funding through the CRC-P program, will focus on developing green and passive exploration techniques to accelerate the discovery of renewable natural hydrogen and provide a clear pathway to drill and extract the resource, which is expected to be up to 75% cheaper than manufactured hydrogen. Since project commencement, the researchers have completed new subsurface data acquisition covering 40% of PEL 691 with the intent to identify drill-ready targets by project completion in June 2025.

The project is to be conducted on H2EX’s exploration license PEL 691 and commenced in August 2023.

Higher degree studies supported:
Not applicable.

Reviewed: September 2024