{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T19:55:43Z","timestamp":1790625343040,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"National Academy of Sciences","issue":"41","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790553600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["42377138"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42377138"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Project","award":["2025YFE0207200"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025YFE0207200"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.pnas.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Underground hydrogen storage requires geological formations with demonstrated hydrogen containment, yet no conventional storage candidate (salt caverns, aquifers, or depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs) offers direct, prior evidence of H\n                    <jats:sub>2<\/jats:sub>\n                    -specific sealing. We propose that subcommercial natural hydrogen reservoirs, where H\n                    <jats:sub>2<\/jats:sub>\n                    has accumulated over geological timescales, can serve as precertified storage sites. This proposition is evaluated using the Bulqiz\u00eb fault-controlled natural H\n                    <jats:sub>2<\/jats:sub>\n                    reservoir in Albania. We develop a coupled geofluid\u2013geomechanical model from exploration data incorporating depth-dependent temperature and permeability gradients across the 5-km vertical extent of the fault zone, hydrogen dissolution under two end-member hydrogeological configurations, and fault stability assessed through slip tendency analysis. Our results show that hydrogen losses from dissolution and abiotic consumption remain below 2% of total inventory under conservative upper-bound assumptions\u2014independently consistent with the sustained natural H\n                    <jats:sub>2<\/jats:sub>\n                    accumulation observed in the reservoir. We identify two distinct, permeability-dependent fault reactivation modes: localized instability near the injection interval at low permeabilities, and instability at the fault\u2013caprock interface at high permeabilities. Parametric analysis across 72 combinations of injection rate, location, and permeability defines safe operating envelopes and yields optimized storage capacities of 3.5 to 4.8 \u00d7 10\n                    <jats:sup>8<\/jats:sup>\n                    m\n                    <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>\n                    . A 10-y cyclic injection\u2013production simulation demonstrates stable throughput of 7.5 \u00d7 10\n                    <jats:sup>5<\/jats:sup>\n                    m\n                    <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>\n                    \u00b7d\n                    <jats:sup>\u22121<\/jats:sup>\n                    with progressively decreasing fault reactivation risk\u2014a counterintuitive finding driven by pressure homogenization through gas redistribution. These results establish natural hydrogen reservoirs as a viable class of underground storage sites.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2617910123","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T19:03:09Z","timestamp":1790622189000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Fault-controlled natural hydrogen reservoirs as underground hydrogen storage sites"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"123","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6578-1707","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lei","family":"Hou","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/0220qvk04","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhengxin","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/0220qvk04","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4942-1151","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Derek","family":"Elsworth","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departments of Energy and Mineral Engineering and Geosciences, Earth and Mineral Sciences Energy Institute, and Center for Geomechanics, Geofluids, and Geohazards, Pennsylvania State University","place":["University Park"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4998-6259","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fengshou","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03rc6as71","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University","place":["Shanghai, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Samintha","family":"Perera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01ej9dk98","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Melbourne","place":["Melbourne, Australia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3990-4707","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qinghua","family":"Lei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/048a87296","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University","place":["Uppsala, Sweden"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mengke","family":"An","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/0030zas98","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University","place":["Hong Kong, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Center of Multiphase Flow in Porous Media, School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China)","place":["Qingdao, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qi","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/0220qvk04","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University","place":["Shanghai, 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Hou Source data for: Fault-controlled natural hydrogen reservoirs as underground hydrogen storage sites. Zenodo. (2026). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.22290002. Deposited 4 September 2026."}],"container-title":["Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1073\/pnas.2617910123","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T19:03:11Z","timestamp":1790622191000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2617910123"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]]},"references-count":36,"journal-issue":{"issue":"41","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1073\/pnas.2617910123"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2617910123","relation":{},"ISSN":["0027-8424","1091-6490"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0027-8424","type":"print"},{"value":"1091-6490","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2026-06-03","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-08-14","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-09-28","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}],"article-number":"e2617910123"}}