Honda and Mitsubishi will test a fuel cell-powered data center in Japan

Comments

• just_another_person@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Seems like it would make more sense to work out a process that skips the cells altogether and just runs from a redox mix or something. This seems wildly inefficient.

  source

  • MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Well the entire point is to keep using fossil fuels since 95% of hydrogen fuel cells are created using natural gas. This is blatant fossil fuel greenwashing

    source

    • steal_your_face@lemmy.ml ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Any more info on this? Have trouble finding anything in Google.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • otter@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Maybe it’s more of an experiment/ proof of concept

    source

    • AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Renewables like wins and solar produce power inconsistently. Hydrogen fuel cells could be a viable tech for storing excess power generated for later use.

      source
  • zurohki@aussie.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    You mean like taking the electricity used to make the hydrogen and just feeding it into the data center?

    source
• JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Stationary buildings like data centers are absolutely the worst use for hydrogen. Why not run power lines?

  source
• bfg9k@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Anything to further fuel cell development as well as hydrogen storage is a win.

  Whoever figures out how to store hydrogen easily will be the next energy megacorp, hydrogen engines and fuel cells are reliable, proven tech, we just haven’t figured out how to store it and transport it without cryogenics and/or insanely high pressures.

  source

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Problem with hydrogen is that it can pass through solid materials, because it’s just one proton, keeping it under high pressure makes the problem worse.
    It’s unwise to say something is impossible, because people tend to find solutions, but AFAIK there is no known way to store Hydrogen efficiently.
    Apart from that hydrogen production is very wasteful, meaning the complete system waste about 45%, before actually producing useful energy from fuel cells.
    Seems to me this is not just an engineering problem, it’s a problem we simply don’t know if a solution even exist.
    Fuel cells have been heavily researched for 30 years now, and it seems like they are getting nowhere. In the mean time Tesla was started “just” 20 years ago, and progress on batteries and EV is very strong.

    source

    • FunderPants@lemmy.ca ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Leaked hydrogen (H2) also binds to oxygen to create water vapor, which is a problem because GHG also binds to oxygen or OH and becomes neutralized. Some studies peg Hydrogen leakage at scale as being 100x worse, in the short term, than CO2 for warming due to this impact.

      …columbia.edu/…/hydrogen-leakage-potential-risk-h…

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • thoughtorgan@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      EV’s have been around since the dawn of ICE cars pretty much.

      source
  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    we just haven’t figured out how to store it and transport it without cryogenics and/or insanely high pressures.

    And we won’t.

    To compress a gas to that level, it either has to be under a lot of pressure, or chilled to the point it becomes a liquid. There’s no getting around physics.

    All we can do is try to find energy efficient ways of chilling/insulating it, and ways of safely and cheaply pressurising it.

    source

    • thoughtorgan@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Never say never. Lol

      If there’s one thing I’ve learned, innovation can wildly subvert expectations.

      source
  • agressivelyPassive@feddit.de ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Especially for data centers, it’s absolutely a waste of money.

    DCs consume very high amounts of power, but in a pretty predictable way. There is no reason whatsoever to use hydrogen in that context. Hydrogen is extremely expensive and will stay expensive more or less forever. Why would a fuel cell ever be economically viable here?

    Hydrogen has its uses. This is not one of them.

    source
• just_another_person@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Are you a five your old?

  source