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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical RE: Diesel storage (was:RE: 24x7 Support Strategies)
> As the price of petrol fuel
supplies slowly moves upward due to demand from
> China and India, I foresee datacenters
moving away from diesel generators as
> backup power sources towards fuel
cells/generators that can burn natural gas and hydrogen.
Technically fuel cells don't burn the fuel; they rely on
a chemical process that is
rather like a battery except that it relies on
a continuous supply of fresh fuel
to supply hydrogen atoms. The fuel cell has a catalyst
which strips electrons
off the fuel, and those flowing electrons are
electricity.
Unfortunately, most fuel cells run very hot (600 C
with molten carbonate) or
use noxious chemicals (sulphuric acid slurry). But a lot of
work is being done
into developing fuel cells that run at low temperatures and
which are not so
fussy about the fuel that you feed them. One company
that has interesting
commercial products right now
is Acumentrics:
--Michael Dillon
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