Fraunhofer-Institut für Chemische Technologie ICTDr. Jacques Pironon & Dr. Philippe de Donato: »Native Hydrogen from the Lorraine Coal Basin«
The discovery of a native hydrogen reservoir in Lorraine is the result of R&D work titled REGALOR (short for REssources GAzières de LORraine), carried out between 2018 and 2023 by the GeoRessources Laboratory (University of Lorraine/CNRS) and La Française de l’Énergie, with joint funding from the French State (Pacte Lorraine), the Grand Est Region, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The collaboration between the GeoRessources laboratory and the company Solexperts, a subcontractor of the REGALOR project, led to a European patent application in 2024 for the development of the SysMoG™ probe – a world-first device that enables the measurement of dissolved gases in water from deep boreholes (down to 1500 m). Its use revealed the presence of native hydrogen (also called white hydrogen) in the subsurface of the Lorraine coal basin and enabled the mapping of its concentration profile.
At a depth of 1250 meters, the hydrogen content in the gas phase extracted by the SysMoG™ probe reaches about 18 mol%, corresponding to a dissolved hydrogen concentration of 2.8 mg/L. The linear increase in hydrogen content from –600 m to –1250 m – i. e., within the upper part of the Lorraine Carboniferous – suggests a deep source of hydrogen and supports the hypothesis that the Saar-Lorraine basin holds an unexpected and potentially valuable native hydrogen resource.
Dr. Jacques Pironon is an Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research). He specializes in geological fluids within sedimentary environments and leads research projects focused on reducing anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, understanding the formation of oil and gas deposits, monitoring industrial sites, and mitigating the environmental impact of subsurface resource exploitation. Jacques Pironon is a key figure in collaborative research in France and abroad. In 2011, he founded the GeoRessources Research Laboratory at the University of Lorraine. He is a member of the Lorraine Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Philippe de Donato is a Research Director at the CNRS in France. He specializes in the physico-chemistry of phenomena from the molecular scale to the earth’s surface environments – both natural and anthropogenic – with a focus on their eco-use for the energy transition and environmental sustainability. Since 2018, he has been a member of the scientific committee of ATMO Grand Est, the scientific committee of INERIS (Soil and Subsoil Risk), and the expert committee of the AVENIA Competitiveness Cluster. He served as Deputy Director of the CNRS/University of Lorraine GeoRessources Laboratory — bringing together 200 researchers and technicians — from 2013 to 2020.