OSU students leverage AI to scout for white hydrogen: Researchers at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center of Ohio State University (OSU) have developed an artificial intelligence-based machine learning system to scour the world’s geologic maps for naturally occurring hydrogen reservoirs, according to Ohio State News.

SOUNDSMART- What is white hydrogen? Geologic hydrogen — also known as white hydrogen — is believed to be produced deep underground through reactions between ultramafic and mafic rocks and anoxic water. The naturally-occurring hydrogen can be found in abundance in layers of continental and oceanic crusts, geysers, and hydrothermal systems.

About the tech: By evaluating remote sensing data — which draws on geomorphic and spectral patterns — the AI can map out nearly invisible semicircular geological depressions (SCDs) in the planet’s surface that indicate white hydrogen reservoirs.

But there are challenges: White hydrogen reservoirs can be hidden by forest or agricultural activity and distinguishing hydrogen deposits from other circular land features — such as lakes or crop circles — remains an obstacle. Byrd Polar researchers used known sites to train the system and fused their machine learning with worldwide satellite imagery data to find SCDs.

What they said: “The biggest challenge is that we need to find more SCDs and then really investigate how these things form,” the project’s lead investigator and associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State Joachim Moortgat said. Recent discoveries of SCDs in the US, Mali, Namibia, Brazil, France and Russia have unveiled that they exist in greater numbers than previously thought, the news outlet notes. “Once we discover a lot more, we will be in a better position to again use AI tools to find similar ones worldwide,” Moortgat noted.

White hydrogen is already viable and MENA is showing interest: Last week, Morocco’s National Bureau for Hydrocarbons and Minerals signed an agreement with an unnamed Swiss company to conduct 3D seismic surveys in the Southern and Eastern parts of the country in a bid to quantify Morocco’s geologic hydrogen reserves. Oman’s Energy and Minerals Ministry signed two MoUs back in September with Eden GeoPower and Earth Sciences Consultancy Centre to conduct preliminary studies on exploring geological white hydrogen and identifying new sites for research.

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