Japan To Test Datacenter Powered By Reused Hydrogen Fuel Cells (theregister.com) 9
Honda and Mitsubishi are collaborating in a two-year project in Shunan City, Japan, to evaluate the feasibility and environmental benefits of powering a data center with fuel cells taken from electric vehicles. The Register reports: Hydrogen for the fuel cell power station will be provided by a third Japanese company, Tokuyama Corporation, as a byproduct from its salt water electrolysis business, which manufactures about 50,000 tons of sodium hypochlorite each year. The project was proposed by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), which promotes the research, development and adoption of industrial, energy and environmental technologies. The objective is to consider ways of reducing costs for organizations to install and operate stationary fuel cell systems, which could ultimately contribute to the decarbonization of the electric power supply. No details were disclosed of the kind of datacenter infrastructure that Mitsubishi will operate as part of this project, so it is unknown how much power the fuel cell power station will be required to supply. [...]
Hydrogen can be considered a clean fuel because it produces only water as a byproduct when consumed in a fuel cell. But the problem is in sourcing the hydrogen. Much commercially produced hydrogen is extracted from methane gas via an energy-intensive process typically powered by fossil fuels. It is likely that the process Tokuyama uses in its salt water electrolysis is ultimately powered by fossil fuels, but the hydrogen is produced as a byproduct and this is currently just a demonstration project to evaluate the feasibility of integrated hydrogen business models. In addition to verifying the use of fuel cells for primary and backup power sources in datacenters, the project will also look at the potential for grid-balancing applications.
Hydrogen can be considered a clean fuel because it produces only water as a byproduct when consumed in a fuel cell. But the problem is in sourcing the hydrogen. Much commercially produced hydrogen is extracted from methane gas via an energy-intensive process typically powered by fossil fuels. It is likely that the process Tokuyama uses in its salt water electrolysis is ultimately powered by fossil fuels, but the hydrogen is produced as a byproduct and this is currently just a demonstration project to evaluate the feasibility of integrated hydrogen business models. In addition to verifying the use of fuel cells for primary and backup power sources in datacenters, the project will also look at the potential for grid-balancing applications.
Coming Soon: Hydrogen Kaiju (Score:1)
The hydrogen fuel cells are not perfectly "clean" and will leak toxic chemicals as the hydrogen is more and more depleted. In a few years, gigantic mutated monsters will emerge from the forest near the power stations, and tromp right across villages on their way to confront the nuclear-waste-based gigantic monsters coming out of the ocean.
Will Science Patrol be able to stop them?
What's Wrong With Slashdot? (Score:2)
Re:Coming Soon: Hydrogen Kaiju
Modded into oblivion (Troll) because the moderator never heard of Ultraman or Japanese monsters, and is too dense to recognize a silly joke. Or is it something else?
If I had mod points to spare (which I generally do have), if I saw a joke that I didn't get or thought was weak, I would just ignore it. Precious mod points are for up-voting good stuff. (And if you thought this was more deeply satirical, along some vague axis that I can't quite put my finger on, would it still deserve to be modded down?)
So what
Greenwashing... (Score:2)
Plain and simple... in fact is it stupid and wasteful since each step in the process affects your overall efficiency, and you end up with less power than if you just ran the methane into a gas turbine generator set [kawasaki.com]
To top it off, hydrogen gas's main advantage is portability where it competes with gasoline or kerosene for power density, albeit with the cost of high pressure storage included.
This power is being used at a facility that is stuck in place, so strike two for hydrogen power not really offering any
japanese Hedge (Score:2)
The viewpoint of the upper Japanese echelon is most likely: "But what happens if global trade stops, and we are then without access to the petroeconomy?"
To them this is most likely not about making a competitive technology, but to have a actual accessible backup in case things go wrong. And maybe find niche cases where there could be a global export market. And this to me seem to be the case why these stories pop in in very regular intervals: They want the expertise to remain relevant in case they need to c
Re: (Score:2)
Plain and simple... in fact is it stupid and wasteful since each step in the process affects your overall efficiency, and you end up with less power than if you just ran the methane into a gas turbine generator set
Yes, but methane is a fossil fuel. I thought we wanted to get away from those?
To top it off, hydrogen gas's main advantage is portability where it competes with gasoline or kerosene for power density, albeit with the cost of high pressure storage included.
Stationary generation is still a problem to be solved. I've used the example of a hospital with (usually multiple) large diesel or natural gas emergency generators. It can run for days as long as you supply fuel. You are not going to run your hospital for days on batteries, nor swap them out if they get low. Likewise the datacenters I've worked in have enough UPS capacity to briefly backstop the generators, not vice versa.
Re: (Score:2)
In the event of an emergency I can carry diesel in a bucket. Just saying.
Yes, or you can tanker truck it in to keep your larger generators topped off for as long as is needed. I'm totally fine with that solution myself, but if net zero is the actual goal then this is still an application where batteries are not going to cut it.
Please learn to use the right words (Score:2)
Greenwashing is a process of investing in nothing but optics and good feelings while ignoring the impact on the environment, e.g. carbon credits, promises to not cut down a tree. If a company is spending more money on developing a product than they are advertising it, even if that product doesn't actually work, then it is not greenwashing, it's R&D.
Words have meanings, use them correctly.