Belgium is looking underground.
There may be clean energy beneath our feet.
In May 2026, the Belgian government launched BE.Hydrogen — a programme to evaluate whether natural geological hydrogen exists in commercially viable quantities beneath Belgian soil, particularly in the Wallonian coal basins.
Learn more →for natural hydrogen
The BE.Hydrogen programme was launched in May 2026 by the Belgian government, led by Minister Jean-Luc Crucke. It mandates the Belgian Geological Survey (GSB/BGS) and Belspo to conduct a systematic evaluation of the potential for natural geological hydrogen in Belgian subsoil — particularly in the Hercynian basement rocks underlying the Wallonian coal basins.
The programme was directly inspired by the REGALOR II discovery in adjacent Lorraine (France), where CNRS researchers confirmed hydrogen concentrations of up to 17% at 1,100 metres depth and the deposit is now estimated at 92 million tonnes. The geological formations in Belgium share important characteristics with the Lorraine basin.
Natural hydrogen — also called white hydrogen or gold hydrogen — requires no electricity, no electrolysis, and no fossil feedstock to produce. It is extracted directly from geological formations, like natural gas, but with near-zero lifecycle emissions.
- Launch — May 27, 2026 · announced by Minister Jean-Luc Crucke · Belgian federal government
- Lead agencies — GSB/BGS (Belgian Geological Survey) · Belspo (Belgian Science Policy)
- Target geology — Hercynian basement · Wallonian coal basins · Hainaut · Campine · Liège region
- Method — geochemical sampling · seismic analysis · AI-assisted subsurface mapping
- First results — spring 2028 · initial geological evaluation
- Context — adjacent to REGALOR II (Lorraine) · HY4Link pipeline (EU PCI) connecting the Greater Region
potential production
Europe's emerging hydrogen hub
The Greater Region already has the industrial infrastructure for a natural hydrogen economy: ArcelorMittal's steel plants in Liège and Luxembourg as CO₂ sources for e-fuels, TotalEnergies Feluy for refining, and the HY4Link hydrogen pipeline (awarded EU Project of Common Interest status) connecting the region.
If BE.Hydrogen and REGALOR II both confirm commercial deposits, the Greater Region has the potential to become Europe's first cost-competitive synthetic fuels production hub — using locally sourced natural hydrogen at €0.50/kg as feedstock.