Australian company HyTerra has announced a AUD$6.1 million (US$4 million) capital raising to finance the drilling for naturally occurring (‘white’ or ‘gold’) hydrogen in the US state of Kansas.

Already owning 39 square kilometres in the state, the company estimates a 90% probability that the land contains 111,738 tonnes of net recoverable H₂, and a 10% chance of 565,340 tonnes. (Helium is also thought to be present on the land, and HyTerra intends to extract it, too.) Moreover, the company believes that the hydrogen may be regenerated due the movement of water through the iron-rich geology of the area. Apart from the prospect of selling the hydrogen itself, there is also hope on the part of HyTerra that it might produce the H₂ at a cost below US$2/kg and a carbon intensity of 0.4 kg of CO₂-equivalent (per kilogram of H₂ produced), which it seems would qualify the company for a US$3/kg tax credit, amounting all together to a seemingly rosy financial picture.

There is, however, as Hydrogen Insight reports, a lack of information regarding the results of the company’s previous drilling for hydrogen and helium at a location in Nebraska, which former CEO Luke Velterop had said would be reported last year. The current news follows a recent story in the Financial Times about the up and coming gold rush for geological reservoirs of hydrogen, after the US Geological Survey’s draft estimate that there may be as much as 5 trillion tonnes of the elemental gas trapped under the earth’s surface.