Gas to Hydrogen, Hydrogen to Data Centers: Modern Hydrogen and Mesa Solutions Offer Unusual Power for Data Centers

Modern Hydrogen and Mesa Solutions have teamed up to create an unusual data center power solution that involves generating hydrogen from natural gas directly on campus with the data center and then using the hydrogen to generate energy, Mesa’s press service reports. Mesa will be responsible for hydrogen generators, and Modern Hydrogen will be responsible for the conversion of natural gas.

Data center operators are expected to benefit in three ways: they will be able to deploy off-the-shelf modular and scalable solutions, avoid power issues associated with external power grids, and use existing infrastructure for transporting natural gas. In addition, operators are now looking for green and low-carbon power sources, according to both companies.

Modern Hydrogen uses pyrolysis to split natural gas or biogas into hydrogen and carbon. The latter is sold to asphalt producers. The splitting process uses high temperatures, no catalysts are needed, and the units are modular and easily scalable. Modern Hydrogen is sponsored by energy companies NextEra Energy and National Grid.

Image source: Mesa Solutions

Last year, Equinix and Microsoft installed GeoPura hydrogen fuel cells in their Dublin data centers to test their use as a primary power source. Honda took a different approach, using used car cells. There are many other projects, including some quite large ones. However, hydrogen power is still a very immature technology. There is no developed supply chain for hydrogen, so many experts believe that it will be years, if not decades, before it can be used commercially on a large scale.