SOLUTION

Natural Hydrogen

Fast-tracking natural hydrogen exploration is pivotal in achieving the energy transition and reaching net-zero emissions

Natural hydrogen: A clean, affordable energy revolution beneath our feet

Xcalibur Smart Mapping is a global leader in airborne exploration for natural hydrogen exploration.

Leveraging our extensive experience and unique technologies, we have supported explorers such as Koloma, HeliumOne, Hyterra, and Gold Hydrogen in their exploration programs.

Everyone wants to live in a clean, healthy environment. As stewards of our beautiful earth, we should want to leave it better than we found it. Hydrogen is often described as the future of clean and affordable energy. However, currently over 90% of the world’s hydrogen is produced from energy generated by burning fossil fuels. This provides no progress in reducing carbon emissions. It is like recharging your EV with a diesel generator. Using renewable energy to create Hydrogen is a step in the right direction, but still comes with a large carbon footprint, and is an expensive way to produce Hydrogen. What if we could find naturally occurring hydrogen stored within in geological horizons and extract it safely and cheaply using existing technology.

This would be a very low-cost and zero-carbon energy source, emitting water as the only by-product.

Natural Hydrogen Generation and Accumulation

Xcalibur brings decades of expertise in data acquisition, interpretation, and modelling

Natural hydrogen is formed in the subsurface via multiple processes. The best understood processes are Serpentinization and Radiolysis.

Serpentinization is an alteration process of mafic/ultramafic lithologies resulting from interaction with water at specific pressures and temperatures. Ultramafic rocks are generally high density and can be mapped to great depth with Airborne Gravity Gradiometry (AGG) with high resolution gravity.

AGG and magnetic data will also image radiogenic granites that generate hydrogen and helium through radiolysis. AGG and magnetic data will map the faults and fractures that act as conduits for both processes, allowing water influx and subsequent hydrogen generation and migration.

For hydrogen to accumulate in the subsurface, impermeable layers such as shales and salt are required to impede its escape to the surface. FALCON® AGG is ideal for mapping these formations and structures, and has demonstrated this capability numerous times in conventional hydrocarbon exploration.

Mapping hydrogen source rocks with FALCON® AGG and magnetics

The high density of mafic/ultramafic source rocks including ophiolitic complexes and other lithologies, allows these to mapped in great detail using FALCON® airborne gravity gradient data.

Although pristine ultramafic rocks are nonmagnetic (containing only paramagnetic silicates and spinels), serpentinization of ultramafic rocks (hydrothermal alteration which releases H2) creates new minerals including magnetite, which allows it to be mapped in detail with FALCON® Magnetics data.
Furthermore, magnetic properties of serpentinites can be used as a proxy to differentiate their serpentinization setting.

Xcalibur Smart Mapping solutions for hydrogen

H-MAS: Airborne hydrogen and methane remote sensing technology

Xcalibur Smart Mapping and Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia, are collaborating to develop technology for the direct detection of atmospheric hydrogen from survey aircraft. This technology, supported by the Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer, utilizes Raman Scattering Spectroscopy, the only known method to remotely and safely detect atmospheric hydrogen and various other gases.

The process involves using a laser to excite a volume of air near the Earth’s surface, generating scattered light with a characteristic vibrational energy from each molecule. The Raman scattered light spectrum is then measured with a spectrometer to determine the concentration of hydrogen and other gases present.

When deployed with FALCON® AGG, H-MAS offers a unique and powerful capability to detect geological hydrogen at the surface while mapping subsurface lithology and structures using FALCON® AGG and Magnetics.

Independently, H-MAS provides a unique capability to remotely monitor atmospheric hydrogen leaks from pipelines and other hydrogen infrastructure.

Integrated Exploration Approach for Locating Natural Hydrogen Using Airborne Geophysics

Using our expertise and unique airborne geophysical solutions, Xcalibur has the capability to bring both petroleum and mineral exploration workflows together to identify where hydrogen is likely to be generated, where it is migrating and where it may be trapped and accumulating in commercial quantities or have a flux high enough to tap and extract.

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