Hydrogen production from iron-rich formations

Abstract

A method for passively producing hydrogen from a geological formation includes drilling a plurality of lateral wellbores into an iron-rich geological formation from a mother wellbore extending from a surface location. Each of the plurality of lateral wellbores has an inclination along its length of less than 90 degrees. A biocide configured to inactivate hydrogen-consuming microbes is placed into the plurality of lateral wellbores and thereby into formation water that is flowed from the geological formation into the plurality of wellbores. Hydrogen gas effervesced from the formation water in the plurality of lateral wellbores is collected via the mother wellbore. The hydrogen gas is generated at least in part from a water reduction reaction of minerals of the geological formation with the formation water and risen through the plurality of lateral wellbores passively by buoyancy effects without pumping.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.