Deep in a forest in the German state of Bavaria, Jürgen Grötsch fights his way through low-hanging branches. He is heading for a secret location hiding a bounty worth millions. If tapped successfully, it could change clean energy generation around the world. The treasure in question is a rare form of hydrogen that flows naturally from the ground.
Grötsch is a geologist. After decades working for the Dutch fossil fuel giant Shell, he is now a researcher at the German University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. With the help of two of his students, he hammers a meter-deep hole into the ground, inserts a gas sensor and waits for its measuring device to display what's down here. He calls it "sniffing" for hydrogen.Grötsch hopes white hydrogen could be a major renewable energy source in the future Image: Florian Kroker/DW
"This is significant," he says as the numbers on the display keep rising. It stops just above 500 parts per million, meaning 0.05 percent of the gas sample is hydrogen.
"That's 1,000 times more than in the air around us," says Grötsch. For him, it indicates that he's found a hydrogen jackpot in this southern German forest.
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