Basic information about the NEXT project

Project name:

Natural Hydrogen Exploration Technologies

Shortened project name:

NEXT

Project status:

Project under implementation

EU financial support (ERDF):

Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETPartnership)

Joint Call 2024, TRI3 – CM2024-05 Hydrogen and Renewable Fuels

Project implementation period:

December 2025 – May 2028

Cooperation partners and contact persons:

• Ketil Djurhuus (NORCE), Norsko

Contact persons from Czech Republic:

• Mgr. Kateřina Černá, Ph.D.

Objectives and content:

Natural hydrogen (H₂), produced naturally within the Earth’s crust, represents a potential low-carbon energy resource. The NEXT project aims to improve our understanding of natural H₂ systems across Europe and assess their potential as a viable carbon-free energy source. By combining geological, geochemical, microbiological and geophysical approaches, NEXT will investigate natural H₂ occurrences, generation processes and potential seepage sites, helping to identify promising targets for future geological H₂ exploration and extraction.

The project is coordinated by the Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE, Norway) and brings together 15 European research institutes, universities and companies.

TUL contributes to two key areas of the NEXT project:

• Mapping natural H₂ occurrences across Europe – contributing to a GIS-based database and analytical tools integrating geological, geochemical and microbiological data.
• Investigating microbial indicators of natural H₂ – characterizing microbial communities in H₂-rich soils, rocks and groundwater and identifying potential microbial biomarkers of H₂ occurrence.
• Understanding microbial controls on H₂ accumulation – investigating environmental factors that may limit microbial H₂ consumption and allow H₂ to persist in the subsurface.
• Experimental investigation of H₂–microbe interactions – combining molecular analyses, long-term H₂ exposure experiments, microbial activity and enrichment tests, and geochemical characterization.

Through this work, TUL will help distinguish geological H₂ seepage from biologically produced H₂ and improve the interpretation of H₂ detected near the surface, contributing to more reliable exploration strategies for natural hydrogen.

The NEXT project is supported by the Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETPartnership) under the Joint Call 2024 and co-funded by the European Union and national/regional funding organisations. Czech participation in the NEXT project is supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR) under the project Nr. TQ22000004.