Gold H2 uses microbes to extract hydrogen from disused oil well

The company’s B2G (black to gold) system involves injecting microbes into oil wells that are no longer economic. Using the abandoned oil as a feedstock, the microbes produce a hydrogen-rich stream that can be extracted using existing well infrastructure. Once scaled, Gold H2 claims that the process will have a similar carbon intensity as green hydrogen but with costs below $1 per kg – comparable to the current price of natural gas.   

Gold H2 completed the first trial of the technology at a legacy oilfield in California’s San Joaquin Basin, extracting a gas stream with 40 per cent hydrogen purity. The company said that California’s depleted oilfields alone could yield up to a quarter trillion kilograms of low-carbon hydrogen, enough to avoid roughly one billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent. 

“Gold H2 exists to do what no one ever has: produce clean hydrogen directly in the subsurface using biology, engineering, and existing energy infrastructure,” said Prabhdeep Singh Sekhon, CEO of Gold H2.