Mantle8, the French deep-tech company pioneering natural hydrogen exploration, today announced that HOREX®, its proprietary multiphysics technology, has produced the world’s first 3D images of an active underground natural hydrogen system.

For years, the search for natural hydrogen has been a story of promise and frustration. Despite growing excitement around its potential, no one has yet drilled a commercially viable reservoir. Exploration has often felt like guesswork: expensive, uncertain, and driven more by hope than by evidence. HOREX® changes that. Built on two decades of research, it finally gives explorers a clear picture of what’s happening beneath the surface, tracing the journey of hydrogen from its source in water, through the rocks where it’s generated, to the reservoirs where it gathers. By revealing this hidden system in full, HOREX® delivers the long-sought “geological trifecta” for finding hydrogen in motion – a breakthrough that makes exploration ten times more cost-effective than traditional methods and has a much lower environmental impact.

The breakthrough dramatically reduces exploration risk and enables targeted, efficient drilling, establishing a clear pathway for industry growth.

“For the first time in history, an entire natural hydrogen system has been imaged at the right scale, from the active reactive engine today to the reservoir accumulating the hydrogen” says Emmanuel Masini, Founder and CEO of Mantle8. “This low-impact innovation de-risks exploration to drilling and is easy to deploy everywhere, dramatically reducing costs and paves the way to commercial production of hydrogen.”

A New Standard for Hydrogen Exploration

Developed from over 20 years of research and multi-patented, HOREX® integrates proprietary geoscience methodologies with uniquely collaborative partnerships, including an exclusive alliance with leading geoscience technology provider Viridien to deliver unparalleled insight and precision.

HOREX® processes vast datasets in a short amount of time. At Mantle8’s Hydrogeco prospect (formerly known as Comminges) in the French Pyrenees, millions of data points were collected by hundreds of sensors over several weeks across 700 square kilometres to generate a 3D model of the hydrogen system in the ground.

This study includes the largest and most comprehensive passive seismic & multi-physics investigation of natural hydrogen ever undertaken combined with surface geophysics and geology. Processed through HOREX®, the resulting images reveal source rock size, quality i.e. hydrogen yield, it unlocks hydrogen generation mapping and flux estimates, it de-risks gas phase in imaged reservoirs and pressure, it drives optimal drilling locations with unparalleled precision.

By identifying viable reservoirs and their characteristics before drilling begins, HOREX® dramatically reduces upfront investment risk and provides a data-driven way to compare and rank opportunities, accelerating the path to drilling decision to hit a first commercial discovery. Modelling suggests natural hydrogen could be produced at Mantle8’s Hydrogeco prospect for around €0.60/kg, on par with natural gas and far below current European green hydrogen averages of more than €5/kg.

“This breakthrough confirms that natural hydrogen exploration is a geoscience tech play that can be replicated and is therefore scalable and low-cost” says Masini. “We are now moving quickly to secure permits, deploy the technology, drill, and bring the first projects to market.”

Unlocking an Industry

Natural hydrogen, produced continuously through natural geological processes, represents a potentially vast, low-carbon energy resource. The USGS and multiple academic studies estimate global reserves at 5.6 trillion tonnes, sufficient to meet world energy demands for generations. However, without reliable exploration technology, this resource has remained largely theoretical.

HOREX® changes that equation. By imaging and quantifying natural hydrogen systems, Mantle8’s technology provides the foundation for a scalable natural hydrogen industry. The technology’s impact extends beyond individual projects, establishing a new industry standard for exploration efficiency.

Path to Production

Based on the HOREX® results at Hydrogeco, Mantle8 will now deploy its technology across other prospects in its portfolio to prepare a first exploration drilling campaign by 2028. The company aims to deliver commercial production by 2030.