Natural or “white” hydrogen is a primary energy source that is continuously generated by geochemical reactions in certain geological formations that exist in Africa. The potential for prospecting, collecting and using it locally, however, remains untapped, with little or no regulatory measures in the regions where it occurs.

The HyAfrica project, which is coordinated by SME Converge! (a spin-off of the Portuguese University of Évora), will begin to explore the possibilities for using the clean energy source to generate electricity in off-grid systems for local, rural communities in Africa. It brings together the expertise of the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics (LIAG), the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology (IEE) and six universities and institutes from Morocco, Togo, Mozambique and South Africa.

First the local teams and universities will carry out assessments. "Together, we will investigate whether this naturally occurring hydrogen can potentially be used economically by the local population," says project manager Dr Maike Buddensiek from Fraunhofer IEE in a press release. "The special thing about this is that socio- and techno-economic aspects will be assessed in equal measure."

Fraunhofer IEE will provide its extensive expertise in hydrogen technology, applications and business models and industrial use-cases, as well as assessing the social impact. LIAG will interpret the geophysical data, specifically gravimetric and magnetic anomalies. "With our investigations, we want to better understand which geological conditions favour the occurrence of natural hydrogen deposits," explains LIAG’s project leader Professor Gerald Gabriel.

HyAfrica is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the EU-funded LEAP-RE programme.