Looking for natural hydrogen in Albania and Kosova
Dan Lévy, Molly Boka-Mene, Avni Meshi, Islam Fejza, Thomas Guermont, Benoît Hauville, Nicolas Pélissier
Abstract
A regional geochemistry field study was conducted in Albania and Kosova to spot natural H 2 occurrences related to ophiolite massifs. A total of 21 sites, mainly consisting of natural springs, were studied, and nine were sampled for analyzing associated free gas and C and H isotopes of CH 4 and H 2 when possible. Four springs showed gas with H 2 occurrence, one particularly reaching 16% of H 2 in the north of Kosova in a location named Vuçe, which makes it the fifth gas seep most enriched in H 2 in the Dinarides, after H 2 -rich gas seeps in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This gas seep is associated with hyperalkaline water having a pH of about 10.7. This would favor the assumption that H 2 is derived from the serpentinization of peridotites, a process which is likely still ongoing. H 2 is associated mainly with N 2 and CH 4 , like the other H 2 -rich gas springs in the Dinarides. Based on C and H isotopes, CH 4 is abiotic or microbial. H isotopes suggest a formation of H 2 at about a 2-km depth. Another hyperalkaline spring was found in the south of Albania, at the border of the Korça Basin, with less than 200 ppm of H 2 . No relation between H 2 and He was identified at the scale of Albania and Kosova, nor at the scale of the whole Dinarides. This work provides a completed map of the H 2 occurrences in the Dinarides and allows to highlight some hot spots for H 2 exploration, mainly located inside the ophiolite massifs like in other ophiolites (such as Oman, New Caledonia, and The Philippines), and not on major faults like in the Pyrenees.