By Vincent Gauci , Science.  Excerpt: For decades, soil was thought to be the only surface that exchanges trace gases with the atmosphere...soil emits gas when it is saturated with water and absorbs gas when it is not saturated. Tree bark biogeochemistry (life-mediated chemical cycling and exchange between air, water, and land) has been almost completely ignored, despite bark having a global surface area of ~143 million km 2 , almost as large as the global land surface... Leung  et al . report that bark microbes process methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide, showing that bark is an important component of global trace gas dynamics. ...Over a 100-year period, methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide trap 27.9, 12.8, and 3 times as much heat as carbon dioxide, respectively. Atmospheric methane is responsible for 0.5°C of the global rise in temperature observed since the preindustrial period....  Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec9651 .

By Amira El-Fekki‎, Newsweek.  Excerpt: Construction is nearing completion on the world’s largest green hydrogen facility in the Saudi desert, with work accelerating as the year draws to a close. ...The plant is  located at Oxagon , Neom’s massive industrial port complex on the Red Sea, designed to integrate renewable energy production with global logistics and industrial operations. ...The  $8.4 billion project  is a joint venture between Neom, U.S.-based industrial gases company Air Products, and Saudi renewable energy firm ACWA Power, which is backed by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. ...The  $8.4 billion project  is a joint venture between Neom, U.S.-based industrial gases company Air Products, and Saudi renewable energy firm ACWA Power, which is backed by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. "The project remains on course, with construction 90% complete," aiming to supply carbon‑free hydrogen globally to help decarbonize hard‑to‑abate industries,"...

By Colleen Howe , Reuters.  Excerpt: BEIJING, Nov 12 (Reuters) - China's energy administration said on Wednesday that it will push renewable energy use beyond the power sector over the next five years, aiming to better absorb the country's booming wind and solar output. Provinces and power producers should help local governments to build up their industrial bases for green hydrogen, green ammonia, green methanol, and sustainable aviation fuel during the next five-year plan from 2026-2030, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said in its opinion document on integrating new energy. Green hydrogen ... can serve as a low-carbon fuel for heavy industry and transport, power industrial processes or vehicles, and as a feedstock for ammonia and methanol, which are used in fertilisers, shipping and elsewhere. The department encouraged coastal areas to explore using offshore wind to produce hydrogen, a still nascent production method. The document also called for using renewables to p...

By Nicole Blanchard , Idaho Statesman.  Excerpt: Idaho could be the next frontier in clean energy, according to a startup that recently got approval to move forward in its exploration for the commodity. Koloma, a natural hydrogen company that does business in Idaho as Cascade Exploration, is looking for naturally occurring underground hydrogen gas in Canyon County. It has submitted applications for two test well locations near Notus. Sharla Arledge, a spokesperson for the Idaho Department of Lands said if the applications are approved, the company would then need to submit applications for drilling permits. ...Underground hydrogen was discovered by chance when crews were digging a well in Mali in the 1980s, according to reporting from Science. Kristen Delano, a spokesperson for Koloma, told the Idaho Statesman in an interview that the discovery shocked scientists, many of whom thought hydrogen molecules were too small to collect underground. ...Proponents say it could be a breakthr...

By Science Adviser.  Excerpt: The chemicals industry is one of the most carbon-intensive industries on the planet, consuming vast amounts of energy to operate production facilities and stoke necessary chemical reactions. Making the industry greener may rely on changing some of the chemistry itself. Hydrogenation, the process that splits apart molecular hydrogen (H 2 ) and adds it to other compounds, is found in a quarter of all chemical industry processes. Since it typically requires energy-intensive high heat and pressure, researchers wanted to probe a more natural energy source: light. Titanium dioxide, a common photocatalyst, was already known to absorb ultraviolet light, so the team tried irradiating it with such light to peel hydrogen molecules apart. ...The researchers used their method to produce ethylene, the world’s most-produced organic chemical and a key component of manufacturing fuels, plastics, fertilizers, and pharmaceuticals. In a related  Perspective...

 By Rebecca F. Elliott , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...As far back as 1977, when oil prices were a big concern in the United States, a Cadillac Seville fueled by hydrogen drove in President Jimmy Carter’s inaugural parade. More recently, a signature law under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. offered generous tax credits to companies that made hydrogen in ways that release little or no carbon dioxide. That spurred a flood of investment announcements by many businesses. But the hype around the fuel is fading fast — and not for the first time. From Arizona to Oklahoma, companies are pulling the plug on clean hydrogen projects after Congress shortened the window for them to qualify for a Biden-era tax credit by five years. Projects now must be under construction by the end of 2027 to qualify, a hurdle that three-quarters of proposals most likely will not meet,  according to Wood Mackenzie , an energy consulting firm....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11...

By Robert F. Service , Science.  Excerpt: As a fuel, hydrogen has one major attraction. When it burns or powers a fuel cell, it creates only water—and no climate-warming carbon dioxide. After that, the caveats start. To ship it or store it, the gas must be crushed under intense pressures or liquefied at ultracold temperatures, which raises costs. Now, researchers report the discovery of a cheap catalyst that adds hydrogen atoms to oil-like molecules that are liquid at ambient temperature and pressure. That means hydrogen could be stored and shipped in existing tanks, trucks, and pipelines, much like gasoline....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/storing-hydrogen-oil-liquid-could-allow-easy-transport-trucks-and-ships . 

By Hannah Richter , Science.  Excerpt: On every continent not cloaked in ice, researchers have discovered strangely barren circular depressions, tens of meters or even kilometers across and as little as a few centimeters deep. Soil probes show these sunken patches, sometimes called “fairy circles,” leak hydrogen gas that is percolating up from within the earth. They have attracted scientists and businesspeople alike for their potential to signal  reserves of clean hydrogen fuel . Now, researchers are offering one of the first geomechanical explanations for how they form: from the pressure of upwelling hydrogen gas, which causes a circular patch of land to rise and then sink. Before the  new study , which was published on 30 May in  Geology , “nobody really understood or tried seriously to understand how these fairy circles are formed,” says Alain Prinzhofer, a geologist and scientific director of Brazilian company GEO4U who reviewed the paper. ...But these circles ha...

By Sujita Sinha , Interesting Engineering.  Excerpt: Scientists in France have made a groundbreaking discovery that could transform clean energy production. Beneath the soil of Folschviller, in the Moselle region, researchers have uncovered an astonishing 46 million tons of natural hydrogen ...providing a new source of carbon-free fuel. The discovery was made by scientists from the GeoRessources laboratory and the CNRS while they were searching for methane. Instead, at a depth of 4,101 feet (1,250 meters), they found an enormous deposit of white hydrogen. This form of  hydrogen  is naturally occurring and does not require industrial production, unlike green hydrogen, which is made using renewable energy, or gray hydrogen, which is derived from fossil fuels. To put this discovery into perspective, the newly found deposit represents more than half of the world’s annual gray hydrogen production—but without the environmental costs. If extracted efficiently, this resource coul...

By Robert F. Service, Science.  Excerpt: Hydrogen is often touted as the future of green energy, and the allure is clear. When burned or run through a fuel cell, the fuel produces water as exhaust, not carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). It is energy-rich enough to drive semitrailer trucks, cargo ships, and other heavy-duty vehicles that are tough to power with batteries. And for many industrial processes requiring high-temperature reactions, such as fertilizer production and steel manufacturing, hydrogen is basically the only alternative to fossil fuels, says Kathy Ayers, a water electrolysis expert at Nel Hydrogen, a Norwegian electrolyzer producer. “Low-carbon hydrogen is absolutely essential if we are going to address the climate crisis.” ...According to the International Energy Agency, the world needs to churn out more than 300 million tons of green hydrogen annually if it is to have a shot at limiting global warming to 1.5°C by 2050. Yet today, operating green hydrogen plants, mostly in ...

By Darren Orf , Popular Mechanics.  Excerpt: ...a new electrode produced by the U.S. company Equatic can safely extract oxygen and hydrogen from seawater while leaving the salt, which usually produces deadly chlorine gas. As a bonus, this method uses direct air capture to remove carbon from the atmosphere. And the anodes are recyclable—they only need a recoating of catalysts (made from abundant materials) every three years. ...Producing hydrogen via seawater electrolysis has the nasty habit of also producing toxic chlorine gas, so current hydrogen production relies on pure water—a resource that’s becoming more and more precious as the world warms. Now, the carbon removal company Equatic—thanks to funding support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)—has successfully developed “oxygen-selective anodes” (OSAs) that will hopefully help scale up hydrogen production via seawater  electrolysis . ...The process does produce acidic and ...

https://hakaimagazine.com/news/can-green-hydrogen-production-help-bring-oceanic-dead-zones-back-to-life/ By Brian Owens , Hakai Magazine.  Excerpt: Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau had met with Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, in nearby Stephenville, Newfoundland...in August 2022, the two leaders locked in Canada’s commitment to supply Germany with hydrogen gas. ...Stephenville...is the site of the proposed World Energy GH2 project, a facility that will use wind power to produce hydrogen gas ...reducing Germany’s reliance on Russian oil. ...[Douglas] Wallace, an oceanographer at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, was tracking how dissolved oxygen moves from the Atlantic Ocean through the gulf into the St. Lawrence River, and how the dearth of oxygen in some places can lead to the development of low-oxygen dead zones. ...So when he heard that Canada was set to ramp up hydrogen production—achieved by electrically splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen—he w...

https://www.science.org/content/article/new-type-water-splitter-could-make-green-hydrogen-cheaper By ROBERT F. SERVICE , Science.  Excerpt: To wean itself off fossil fuels, the world needs cheaper ways to produce green hydrogen—a clean-burning fuel made by using renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Now researchers report a way to avoid the need for a costly membrane at the heart of the water-splitting devices, and to instead produce hydrogen and oxygen in completely separate chambers. As a lab-based proof of concept,  the new setup —reported this month in Nature Materials—is a long way from working at an industrial scale. But if successful, it could help heavy industries such as steelmaking and fertilizer production reduce their dependence on oil, coal, and natural gas. ...Any successes in eliminating electrolyzer membranes could be a boon to efforts to decarbonize parts of industry most dependent on fossil fuels, he says. “I can not overstate ho...

https://www.cnn.com/travel/the-long-road-to-guilt-free-flying-climate/index.html By Jacopo Prisco , CNN.  Excerpt: Aviation faces a steep climb towards a greener future. Although it has, like many other industries, committed to slashing its planet-warming pollution by 2050, it is  not on track  to reach its target… ...the sector currently accounts for around 2.5% of global carbon emissions, its actual climate impact is actually  higher , because of the emission of other greenhouse gases and the formation of heat-trapping condensation trails created by jet engines. Meanwhile, demand for air travel is projected to steadily rise, with the global fleet of commercial airplanes doubling in size by 2042 to keep up,  according to Boeing . ...Sustainable aviation fuel, or  SAF , is a type of alternative jet fuel that can curb carbon emissions by  up to 80% . It ...is usually made from plants that have absorbed carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) during their lifetime. When ...

https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-hands-out-7-billion-hydrogen-hubs By KATHERINE BOURZAC , Science.  Excerpt: President Joe Biden’s administration today announced $7 billion in funding for seven regional “hubs” to produce hydrogen, which produces water as exhaust when combusted. If made cleanly, hydrogen could help fight global warming by replacing fossil fuels in the fertilizer and steel industries, and in tricky-to-electrify vehicles such as long-haul trucks. ...Hydrogen has had a “chicken and egg” problem, says Keith Wipke, program manager for fuel cell vehicles at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Nobody will start large-scale production until there are customers,” he says. And customers are reluctant to switch to hydrogen without a steady and cheap supply of the gas. “It’s the same story as we’ve seen with solar and wind. The more you build, the cheaper it becomes,” says Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a researcher at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy P...

https://www.science.org/content/article/chemical-cages-could-store-hydrogen-expand-use-clean-burning-fuel By ROBERT F. SERVICE , Science.  Excerpt: Cheap molecular “sponges” made with aluminum can be low-pressure gas tanks. Hydrogen seems like the perfect fuel. By weight it packs more punch than any other fuel. It can be made from water, meaning supply is almost limitless, in principle. And when burned or run through a fuel cell, it generates energy without any carbon pollution. But hydrogen takes up enormous volume, making it impractical to store. Compressing it helps, but is expensive and essentially turns hydrogen storage tanks into high-pressure explosives. Now, a molecular sponge made of organic compounds and cheap aluminum promises a practical solution, holding significant amounts of hydrogen at low pressures. Described in a paper accepted last week at the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), it is the latest in a series of promising metal-organic framew...

https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-bets-it-can-drill-climate-friendly-hydrogen-just-oil By ERIC HAND , Science.  Excerpt: ...Today, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the high-risk, high-reward arm of the Department of Energy (DOE),  announced it would fund $20 million in grants  to advance technologies for extracting clean-burning hydrogen from deep rocks. ...some researchers have concluded that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Earth  harbors vast deposits of the gas  that could be tapped like oil—and that reserves could be stimulated by pumping water and catalysts into the crust. ...Most hydrogen today is manufactured by combining steam and methane in factories that emit carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and add to global warming. Governments are supporting efforts to make hydrogen cleanly, either by capturing the emitted CO 2  and storing it underground (blue hydrogen) or by using renewable electricity to split water and harvesting the...

https://www.science.org/content/article/splitting-seawater-provide-endless-source-green-hydrogen By Robert F. Service, Science.  Excerpt: ...“Green” hydrogen, made by using renewable energy to split water molecules, could power heavy vehicles and decarbonize industries such as steelmaking without spewing a whiff of carbon dioxide. But because the water-splitting machines, or electrolyzers, are designed to work with pure water, scaling up green hydrogen could exacerbate global freshwater shortages. Now, several research teams are reporting advances in producing hydrogen directly from seawater, which could become an inexhaustible source of green hydrogen. ...Md Kibria, a materials chemist at the University of Calgary, says for now there’s a cheaper solution: feeding seawater into desalination setups that can remove the salt before the water flows to conventional electrolyzers. ...Today, nearly all hydrogen is made by breaking apart methane, burning fossil fuels to generate the needed...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/11/climate/green-hydrogen-energy.html By  By  Max Bearak , The New York Times.  Excerpt: this remote parcel of the Australian Outback for an imminent transformation. A consortium of energy companies led by BP plans to cover an expanse of land eight times as large as New York City with as many as 1,743 wind turbines, each nearly as tall as the Empire State Building, along with 10 million or so solar panels and more than a thousand miles of access roads to connect them all. But none of the 26 gigawatts of energy the site expects to produce, equivalent to a third of what Australia’s grid currently requires, will go toward public use. Instead, it will be used to manufacture a novel kind of industrial fuel: green hydrogen. ...the biggest problem that green hydrogen could help solve: vast iron ore mines that are full of machines powered by immense amounts of dirty fossil fuels. Three of the world’s four biggest ore miners oper...

https://www.science.org/content/article/sun-powered-water-splitter-produces-unprecedented-levels-green-energy By Robert F. Service, Science.  Excerpt: ...The latest iteration of their device uses not only the visible and ultraviolet photons able to split water, but also the less energetic infrared photons. The combined changes enabled the scientists to convert 9.2% of the Sun’s energy into hydrogen fuel,  roughly three times more than previous photocatalytic setups , they report today in  Nature . ...In addition, ...the new setup also works well, though somewhat less efficiently, with seawater, a cheap and inexhaustible resource. Being able to convert seawater cheaply into carbon-free fuel would truly be the ultimate in green energy.