Are there Natural Hydrogen Reserves for 170,000 Years?

The natural hydrogen “springs” are becoming popular, and with good reason. I just read an article about it in Scientific American:

“Huge Reservoirs of Clean Hydrogen Could Power Earth for 170,000 Years.” Recent breakthroughs suggest that these reservoirs are buried in countless regions of the world, including at least 30 U.S. states.

The number of years is mind-boggling, but what are these reservoirs all about? I’ll try to explain it in simple terms. Natural hydrogen, formed by geological processes, is a potential source of clean energy because it only produces water when burned.

Current evidence indicates that there may be substantial underground reserves of this hydrogen, sufficient to power the global economy for centuries. In principle, hydrogen would be a competitive, low-cost energy source ideal for sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, such as heavy industry and transportation.

However, all of this sounds great but is still theoretical. Locating and extracting these reserves is complicated, and the economic viability of such a large-scale undertaking is controversial. However, the same thing happened with oil: a whole new technology had to be developed. The same is true for natural hydrogen, also known as white hydrogen. The technology is still under development, and of course, the initial costs are high.