Proton Urges Data Centres To Consider Fuel Cells

Carbon-conscious data centre managers should examine hydrogen fuel cells as an alternative to diesel backup, says Thomas Melczer

It is fair to say that it is still early days for the hydrogen fuel cell concept, as a solution for providing an alternative and clean power source.

But according to the boss of a German fuel cell developer, the hydrogen fuel cell is starting to make its presence felt, and should gain greater market impact within the next two to three years.

And now is the time that data centre owners and operators should be examining the technology to see how it can play a vital role in reducing their carbon emissions. Google for example is reportedly testing the tiny fuel cell boxes, dubbed the Bloom box, from Bloom Energy.
Slow Arrival

Over on this side of the Atlantic, fuel cells have a somewhat limited presence in data centres, but this could be about to change.

According to Thomas Melczer, CEO at Proton Power Systems, the fuel cell has traditionally gained a lot of traction in both the commercial vehicle sector and the maritime industry. For commercial vehicles Proton supplies hydrogen fuel cells for city buses and fork lift trucks, whereas as in the maritime sector, fuel cells are now been utilised for ships and boats as a power source while they are in harbour.

Fuel cell systems are considered to be an much cleaner and attractive option for the generation of electrical energy in the near future. The advantage is that they can be used to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and thereby cut CO2 emissions dramatically. The downside at the moment is cost, but this should come down as uptake increases.

“We have been in business since 1996 but we are a small specialist company with around 50 people that started out providing fuel cells for the automotive sector,” explained Proton Power’s Melczer. “We are focused on providing a product platform with a multi purpose system, so our fuel cells can be used to provide power for HGV vehicles, or auxiliary power supply for ships. But we now also offer 50 kilowatt systems for data centres that can be run in parallel, depending on the data centre power requirements.”

“We try not lose track of our of our industrial past. We try to focus ourselves on suitable alternative uses of fuel cells, but we don’t want to be too focused on one application,” said Melczer. “We work closely with our industrial partners in the light and heavy duty vehicle market; the backup power market, and the ship designer sector.”

Backup Power

In the data centre or IT context, the hydrogen fuel cell would commonly be utilised as an alternative backup power solution.

At the moment the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) industry is predominantly using lead acid batteries in data centres and server rooms as a standby power source. And in data centres they are using diesel generators, or battery-based UPS, or even flywheel technology.

But there are associated problems with all of these options.

The problem, according to Melczer, with flywheels (a mechanical device that provides kinetic energy) is that flywheels can only provide power for some minutes, and will still need a battery power source. The problem with batteries, Melczer says, is that they contain toxic materials and can be expensive and take up a lot of room. They also have a lot of thermal runaway and need to replaced every five to seven years.

Melczer also points to the environmental problems with the diesel generator, commonly used as a backup power solution at data centres.

He believes the drawbacks with the generator engine is that it generates noise as well as fumes (and hence carbon emissions). And the price of diesel is pretty high as well.

“The fuel cell provides very long backup time, and we have worked hard to simplify our system so that it can be refuelled by a data centre technician,” said Melczer. “Our system can also use gas canisters containing hydrogen. A bundle of say six canisters can be used to generate 6 kilowatts which would provide 12 to 20 hours of backup power.”
Hydrogen Pipelines

“The problem you have always is what amount of power you are actually talking about,” said Melczer. “Frankly speaking, today diesel generators might be the only solution for 12 to 20 megawatt solutions. That said, the fuel cell does also have limitations as it needs hydrogen, but that can easily be done if the infrastructure is in place.”

“For example, in Germany we have a 1,300 km hydrogen pipeline located in industrial areas, so data centre managers should start considering locating or building their data centres near hydrogen pipelines,” said Melczer. “Hydrogen is a by-product of the chemical industry and, until now, that hydrogen was never used. It typically costs between €0.70 (£0.63) and €1 (£.90) for 1 kg of hydrogen compared to diesel which can cost €1.50 (£1.35) per litre.”

“In Germany we have so much hydrogen from the chemical industry you could support the entire public sector transport buses with that hydrogen without making anymore,” Melczer said. “When people are planning their next colocation data centre, in Europe you can be flexible as to where you can locate it. So why not build it near to a chemical plant and see if you can utilise their hydrogen pipelines?”

Green Solution

“We currently have industrial systems up to 100 kilowatts. But if the the client wanted 1 megawatt, then they would simply install ten 100 kilowatt cabinets,” said Melczer. “You will still need some battery capacity, because the fuel cell takes about one minute to become operational. But then it can provide energy for hours and hours. The fuel cell is very interesting because unlike diesel there is no emissions, and it is very green.”

“We are just in the process of finalising a deal with a hardware provider in Germany, as three to four data centres are equipping their sites with fuel cells,” said Melczer. “As I said before, our fuel cell is very green as it is a pure hydrogen fuel cell, that produces water and oxygen, and nothing else.”
Peak Power Alternative?

“One of the problems with some standby power solutions is that you cannot easily stop them, which makes them unsuitable for data centre backup,” said Melczer. “Our fuel cell you can turn off and on, and it is also suitable for powering equipment during peak times as well. If, for example, you arevery close to a hydrogen pipeline then during peak times it would make sense to disconnect from mains electricity and run our fuel cells for three hours during peak loads to save on high electricity costs.”

“The lifetime expectation of our fuel cells is 5,000 hours, but with regular servicing this could be longer,” said Melczer. “We need less space than other traditional battery-based systems and some of our solutions are modular.”

But what about the cost of fuel cells?

“We are aware that for data centres cost is always a major issue, and when you are comparing fuel cells against diesel generators it is hard, because diesel systems are cheaper,” said Melczer. “But we are trying to increase volume which should in turn bring down the cost of fuel cells. The IT industry should expect fuel cell costs to drop when the volume increases.”

“Our partnerships allows us a certain volume, but in two to three years we expect prices to come down because volumes will increase,” concluded Melczer. “Fuel cells are increasingly a viable alternative and it would be very interesting for IT managers and data centre managers to get experience of fuel cells now. They need to start to understand them and how they would be used in their environment, so now is a good time to experiment with fuel cells. You can start small, with say 5 to 10 kilowatts tests, which would not cost the world.”

Source: Tom Jowitt, eWeek