NHEAT – Natural Hydrogen for Energy trAnsiTion
Natural hydrogen, also known as native or geological hydrogen, is an energy source that could revolutionize our low-carbon future. Although its energy potential has been overlooked in the past—because it was deemed too rare or difficult to extract—numerous natural H2leaks have been reported recently , with concentrations ranging from 10% to over 90%, many of them discovered accidentally. Hydrogen has been found in diverse geological settings, in oceanic and continental crust, in rift and back-arc basins, within BIF's (banded iron formation), at mid-ocean ridges, in orogenic and ophiolitic settings, and in magmatic and hydrothermal systems.
taly has so far lacked dedicated geological studies to identify and map natural hydrogen emissions, the processes that generated it, and the contexts in which it accumulated.
The NHEAT project aims to stimulate and direct hydrogen research in Italy, which is still underdeveloped and poorly conceptualized. Our challenge is to investigate, using a multidisciplinary geological-structural, petrological, and geochemical approach, the processes that generated natural H2 in promising Italian areas that could reveal the presence of H2 at depth or at the surface: systems dominated by serpentinites and volcanic/magmatic hydrothermal systems.
The NHEAT project is led by the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (IGG) of the National Research Council (CNR) in collaboration with the Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering (IGAG-CNR), the Department of Earth Sciences of Sapienza University of Rome, and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Palermo section.
NHEAT is funded by the European Union under the Next Generation EU initiative and by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, PRIN PNRR program.
NHEAT addresses the PRIN PRNN 2022 call through the strategic themes of “Sustainability and protection of natural resources”, in the relevant Cluster 5 “Climate, energy and mobility”, point 4 “An efficient and sustainable use of energy, accessible and safe for all, thanks to a clean energy system and a just transition”.