A recent episode of MCJ’s Inevitable podcast explored an important question facing the natural hydrogen industry: where could naturally occurring hydrogen create commercial value first? Rather than focusing on transportation or electricity generation, Koloma co-founder and CEO Pete Johnson explained why ammonia production—an industry that already consumes enormous quantities of hydrogen—may represent one of natural hydrogen’s earliest commercial opportunities.

The conversation goes beyond the science of natural hydrogen to examine the practical factors that determine whether an energy resource succeeds in the marketplace. Johnson discusses why geology alone is not enough, how decades of subsurface research and artificial intelligence guide Koloma’s exploration strategy, and why locating hydrogen close to existing industrial demand could prove just as important as finding the resource itself.

Hydrogen is already an essential industrial feedstock, and one of its largest applications is the production of ammonia, a critical ingredient in nitrogen fertilizers used throughout modern agriculture.

Today, most hydrogen used to manufacture ammonia is produced from natural gas through steam methane reforming. While this is a mature industrial process, it requires significant energy and depends on a manufactured hydrogen supply chain.

Natural hydrogen presents a different possibility. Rather than manufacturing hydrogen above ground, companies explore for naturally occurring accumulations trapped beneath the Earth’s surface.

One reason ammonia represents an attractive early application is that it does not require the creation of a new market. Fertilizer manufacturers already consume large volumes of hydrogen every day. If naturally occurring hydrogen can be produced economically and reliably, it could supply an existing industrial process.

One of the podcast’s central themes is that successful natural hydrogen projects depend on far more than favorable geology.

Johnson explains that the commercial value of a natural hydrogen resource increases when it is located near industries that already consume hydrogen like in the Midwest. As one of the world’s largest agricultural regions, it has substantial demand for ammonia-based fertilizers and the industrial infrastructure needed to use hydrogen at scale.

Johnson notes that fertilizer manufacturers and farmers in the region often rely on ammonia transported over long distances, adding cost and logistical complexity. The best natural hydrogen resource is not necessarily the largest one—it is the one that can economically serve nearby customers.

Although interest in natural hydrogen has accelerated, Johnson emphasizes that discovering commercially viable resources is far more complex than many people assume.

Koloma’s exploration strategy builds on more than 25 years of proprietary subsurface hydrogen research developed by its scientific team. Rather than relying solely on traditional exploration methods, the company combines this extensive geological dataset with artificial intelligence to better identify areas that may contain commercially significant natural hydrogen accumulations.

The discussion also explains why Koloma evaluates exploration opportunities across the United States, the Philippines, Australia, and Canada. Each region presents different geological conditions, infrastructure, and industrial markets, requiring exploration strategies tailored to local opportunities rather than a single global model.

While hydrogen is often discussed as a transportation fuel or future power source, Johnson argues that established industrial markets may provide a more practical starting point because they already consume hydrogen at scale.

The Inevitable podcast offers a thoughtful look at how Koloma approaches natural hydrogen exploration—not simply as a geological challenge, but as the intersection of science, economics, and industrial demand. Readers interested in the full conversation can listen to MCJ’s interview with Koloma CEO Pete Johnson, then explore Koloma’s educational resources on natural hydrogen, the science behind natural hydrogen, and the company’s exploration approach to learn more about the topics discussed in the podcast.