What’s the connection between the Black Sea, renewable energy and the smell of rotten eggs? Turns out that hydrogen sulfide — the gas that gives eggs gone bad their distinctive smell — is present in abundance in the Black Sea … in amounts great enough that it could be tapped as a future source of clean energy.

That according to a team of Turkish researchers who have published a paper on the Black Sea’s energy potential.

The Black Sea is unlike other large bodies of water in that it contains very little oxygen. Because of that, the extreme bacteria that live there metabolise sulfate rather than oxygen, with a byproduct of that metabolism being hydrogen sulfide. Organic runoff pollution from land also contributes to the process.

The research team estimates that the Black Sea could be producing as much as 10,000 tonnes of hydrogen sulfide a day. That amount could yield up to 500 tonnes of hydrogen gas daily, they say. The key now is finding a safe and energy-efficient way to “mine” the hydrogen sulfide from the waters.

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