Hydrogen is a carbonless fuel which creates no CO2 when used. Proton technologies, a Canadian oil company that is affiliated with the University of Calgary has a way to make clean hydrogen at an anticipated production cost below $0.30 US per kg with a lower carbon intensity than wind or solar to electrolysis. The abandonment of Oil fields in the company’s perception is not due them being empty, rather they have reached their economic limit even though much oil remains in the ground. The company’s process to capture remaining oil involves injecting liquid oxygen into oil reservoirs. This triggers reactions that produce hydrogen. Then a downhole hydrogen filter (membrane) is used where it allows only hydrogen to come into the production well and up to the surface, hence leaving all carbon in the ground. The cost structure is low because late-life oilfields become the company’s reaction vessel which already contains decades of fuel.

• In terms of transporting hydrogen, It could be moved by trucks, by rail, by pipelines as a gas and as a liquid, or it could be incorporated into chemicals such as ammonia. If the production cost of hydrogen is lower than natural gas, baseload electricity and blending into natural gas systems are attractive and there would be an incentive to use hydrogen generators due to the large and evidently proven markets that would purchase this commodity as infrastructures and customer demand already exist.