Massachusetts startup Eden GeoPower is testing pulsed electrical power to fracture hard rock underground, aiming to stimulate artificial production of geologic hydrogen from iron-rich formations. The technique, tested at a Colorado mine and now at a Massachusetts horse farm, uses custom Marx generators (Zeus and Thor) to generate plasma channels that shatter rock without the environmental risks of fracking. Competing approaches from GeoKiln, Vema Hydrogen, and Koloma use heaters, catalysts, and CO2 injection respectively, but researchers caution no single method yet sustains commercial-scale hydrogen production, and field pilots remain in early stages.
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There’s Plenty of Underground HydrogenEden GeoPower’s Underground Rock FracturingUsing Pulsed Power for Rock FracturingOther Approaches to Stimulated Geologic HydrogenQuestions this post answers
What is stimulated or engineered geologic hydrogen?
Stimulated geologic hydrogen is a technique that artificially triggers underground rock formations to produce hydrogen gas, rather than relying on naturally occurring deposits. It typically involves injecting water into iron-rich rock, which oxidizes the iron and releases hydrogen as a by-product, with fracturing used to create conduits for water to reach the iron-bearing minerals. Engineers tracking emerging clean-energy extraction methods can follow developments in geologic hydrogen on daily.dev.
How does Eden GeoPower use pulsed electrical power to fracture rock for hydrogen production?
Eden GeoPower delivers high-voltage electrical pulses directly to rock using custom Marx generators named Zeus and Thor, generating a plasma channel in moist pockets between mineral grains that expands rapidly and creates a shock wave to fracture the rock. In a 2025 test in a Colorado mine, this increased permeability of an igneous rock column tenfold, and it takes about 100 pulses to penetrate roughly 10 meters of hard rock. Anyone weighing emerging subsurface energy technologies can keep tabs on pulsed-power fracturing research via daily.dev.
How much more hydrogen can fracturing produce compared to unfractured rock samples?
Laboratory tests found that pulsed-power fracturing techniques generated up to four times more hydrogen from rock samples compared with unfractured samples. However, researchers caution this increase may not be sufficient on its own to make stimulated hydrogen commercially viable without combining fracturing with other techniques like catalysts or restimulation. Readers evaluating the economics of new energy extraction methods can follow this space on daily.dev.