Eclipse Energy’s microbes can turn dormant oil wells into hydrogen factories

There are as many as 3 million abandoned oil and gas wells scattered across the United States alone, and while many of them still contain oil or natural gas, their owners have decided that continuing to pump is not worth the hassle.

“They tried everything,” Eclipse Energy CEO Prabh Sekhon told TechCrunch. “There’s still a ton of oil left.”

Eclipse has no way of recovering this oil, but it does have a way of compressing some of the energy it embodies to the surface. Instead of pumping the oil harder or injecting something to push the oil to the surface, Eclipse sends microbes to feed on the oil molecules and release their hydrogen.

Instead of viscous oil, companies only have to deal with hydrogen gas. “Hydrogen flows much easier,” Sekhon said, making it easier to extract from the well.

The Houston-based startup, which spun out of Cemvita, demonstrated the technology in an oil field in California’s San Joaquin Basin last summer. It is now teaming up with oilfield services company Weatherford International to spread the technology around the world, the startup exclusively told TechCrunch. The first projects will start in January.

“They are an extension of our team,” Sekhon said to describe the relationship with Weatherford. “They will be our operational arm.”

Eclipse, formerly known as Gold H2, has been developing this technology over the past several years. They sampled microbes that occur naturally in oil wells, and that live at the interface between oil and water in aquifers, to find those best suited for the job.

When microbes consume the oil, they break it down into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. They both then flow to the surface, where Eclipse and his partners will eventually separate the two. About half of the carbon dioxide is likely to remain in the tank, while the other half can be captured using specialized equipment and isolated or used.

Sekhon said the goal is to produce low-carbon hydrogen at about 50 cents per kilogram, or the same price as hydrogen obtained by decomposing natural gas in an industrial plant, a process that releases more carbon dioxide.

The resulting hydrogen can be used in petrochemical plants or burned to produce energy.

“It takes responsibility and turns it into a clean energy asset,” Sekhon said.