Method of operating an energy center

• US 9,019,700 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2012
• Issued: 04/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bloom Energy Corporation
• Original Assignee: Bloom Energy Corporation
• Inventors: Ballantine, Arne, Sridhar, KR, Motta, Jon Christopher, Light, Peter, Cottuli, Carl, Mahler, Jessica
• Primary Examiner(s): HOFFBERG, ROBERT JOSEPH
• Application Number:
  US13/533,755
• Publication Number:
  US 20130163193A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,036 Days
• Field of Search: 361/679.46, 361/679.48, 361/688, 361/695, 429/434, 429/439
• US Class Current: 361/679.46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/20 Cooling means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/263 Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC G06F1/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/201 Cooling arrangements using cooling fluid
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/30 The power source being a fuel cell
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/00 Constructional details common to different types of electric apparatus casings, cabinets, drawers H05K5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1492 having electrical distribution arrangements, e.g. power supply or data communications
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1497 Rooms for data centers; Shipping containers therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20709 for server racks or cabinets; for data centers, e.g. 19-inch computer racks
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20718 Forced ventilation of a gaseous coolant in closed loop H05K7/20754
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20745 within rooms for removing heat from cabinets, e.g. by air conditioning device
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20763 Liquid cooling without phase change
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20827 within rooms for removing heat from cabinets, e.g. air conditioning devices
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 9/0001 Rooms or chambers anechoic chambers G01R29/0821
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/40 Fuel cell technologies in production processes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49002 Electrical device making

Abstract

Methods are provided for creating and operating data centers. A data center may include an information technology (IT) load and a fuel cell generator configured to provide power to the IT load.

Claims

1. A method for operating a data center, comprising

a plurality of information technology (IT) loads,

a plurality of fuel cell generators electrically coupled to the plurality of IT loads,

a building structure housing the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads, wherein at least one of:

the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads are laterally separated and are located on a same floor of the building structure, or

the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a first floor of the building structure and none of the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a second floor of the building structure, and the plurality of IT loads are located on the second floor and none of the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on the first floor, and

a cooling device, the method comprising;

operating the plurality of fuel cell generators to provide power to the plurality of IT loads;

providing a process exhaust stream from at least one of the plurality of fuel cell generators or the plurality of IT loads; and

using the process exhaust stream to cool at least one of the plurality of fuel cell generators or the plurality of IT loads.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

providing the process exhaust stream comprises providing the process exhaust stream from the plurality of fuel cell generators; and

using the process exhaust stream comprises using the process exhaust stream to cool the plurality of IT loads.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

providing the process exhaust stream comprises providing the process exhaust stream from the plurality of IT loads; and

using the process exhaust stream comprises using the process exhaust stream to cool the plurality of fuel cell generators.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring the plurality of IT loads;

controlling an operation of the plurality of fuel cell generators to provide power to an energy storage device coupled to the plurality of IT loads; and

controlling an operation of the energy storage device to power to the plurality of IT loads.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the building structure includes an air inlet conduit, an air filter coupled to the air inlet conduit, a fan, and an air exhaust conduit, the method further comprising:

operating the fan to draw air into the building structure via the air inlet conduit and circulate the air within the building structure;

filtering the air from the air inlet conduit to create filtered air;

providing the filtered air to the plurality of fuel cell generators or the plurality of IT loads; and

exhausting the air from the building structure via the air exhaust conduit.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

exhausting a fuel exhaust stream from the plurality of fuel cell generators out a first side of the building structure different from a second side of the building structure from which the air inlet conduit draws the air; and

exhausting the process exhaust stream from the plurality of IT loads and the plurality of fuel cell generators out a third side of the building structure different from the second side of the building structure from which the air inlet conduit draws the air and the first side of the building structure from which the fuel exhaust stream from the plurality of fuel cell generators is exhausted.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one of:

the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads are laterally separated and are located on a same floor of the building structure, or the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a first floor of the building structure and none of the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a second floor of the building structure, and the plurality of IT loads are located on the second floor and none of the plurality of IT loads are located on the first floor is the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads are laterally separated and are located on a same floor of the building structure, and

wherein the building structure comprises a first building portion housing the plurality of IT loads and a second building portion housing the plurality of fuel cell generators, the first building portion and a second building portion are two separate building portions connected together by a connection structure, the method further comprising;

passing the air from the first building portion to the second building portion via the connection structure.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising maintaining the air temperature in the connection structure at 50 to 70 degrees Celsius.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

providing hot air exhausted from each of the plurality of IT loads to an air inlet of each of the plurality of fuel cell generators.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the plurality of IT loads are one or more of a server, a computer, a router, or an IT rack.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of IT loads is cooled by absorptive cooling.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of IT loads is cooled by compression cooling.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

removing water from the process exhaust stream of the plurality of fuel cell generators; and

cooling the plurality of IT loads using the removed water by evaporative cooling.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the building structure further comprises a first electrically grounded metal skin and a second electrically grounded metal skin which is separately ground from the first electrically grounded metal skin and surrounds the first electrically grounded metal skin, wherein the ground of the second electrically grounded metal skin is isolated in a ground vault.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

drawing air into the building structure via an air inlet conduit through at least a first metal mesh placed over an opening of both the first electrically grounded metal skin and the second electrically grounded metal skin and at least a second metal mesh placed between the first electrically grounded metal skin and the second electrically grounded metal skin.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a minimum runtime for each of the plurality of fuel cell generators;

providing a fuel storage for each of the plurality of fuel cell generators;

storing an amount of fuel in each fuel storage selected to provide the minimum runtime for a respective one of the plurality of fuel cell generators; and

cooling the plurality of IT loads using heat removal from the stored fuel.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the heat removal from the stored fuel occurs during conversion of the stored fuel from a liquid to a gas or during expansion of the stored fuel.

18. A method for operating a data center, comprising

a plurality of information technology (IT) loads,

a plurality of fuel cell generators electrically coupled to the plurality of IT loads,

a building structure housing the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads, wherein at least one of:

the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads are laterally separated and are located on a same floor of the building structure, or

the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a first floor of the building structure and none of the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a second floor of the building structure, and the plurality of IT loads are located on the second floor and none of the plurality of IT loads are located on the first floor, and

a cooling device, the method comprising;

operating the fuel cell generator to provide power to the plurality of IT loads;

operating the cooling device to cool at least one of the plurality of fuel cell generators or the plurality of IT loads.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the cooling device cools the plurality of fuel cell generators.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the cooling device cools the plurality of IT loads.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the cooling device cools both the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one of:

the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads are laterally separated and are located on a same floor of the building structure, or the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a first floor of the building structure and none of the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a second floor of the building structure, and the plurality of IT loads are located on the second floor and none of the plurality of IT loads are located on the first floor is the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads are laterally separated and are located on a same floor of the building structure, and

wherein the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads are located in a staggered arrangement or in a back to back arrangement.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the cooling device comprises at least one fan which draws in cooling air from outside of the building structure, and the step of cooling both the plurality of IT loads and the plurality of fuel cell generators comprises passing the cooling air from the at least one fan through the plurality of IT loads and then past the plurality of fuel cell generators followed by exhausting the air through a roof of the building structure.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising a separating wall which separates a row of the plurality of IT loads from a row of the plurality of fuel cell generators such that the wall allows the cooling air to pass from the at least one fan through the row of plurality of IT loads to the row of the plurality of fuel cell generators but substantially prevents the air from passing back from the row of plurality of fuel cell generators back to the row of plurality of IT loads.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one of:

the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads are laterally separated and are located on a same floor of the building structure, or the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a first floor of the building structure and none of the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a second floor of the building structure, and the plurality of IT loads are located on the second floor and none of the plurality of IT loads are located on the first floor is the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a first floor of the building structure and none of the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a second floor of the building structure, and the plurality of IT loads are located on the second floor and none of the plurality of IT loads are located on the first floor, and

wherein the building structure includes an air inlet conduit, an air filter coupled to the air inlet conduit, the cooling device comprising a fan, and an air exhaust conduit, the method further comprising;

operating the fan to draw air into the building structure via the air inlet conduit and circulate the air within the building structure;

filtering the air from the air inlet conduit to create filtered air;

providing the filtered air to the plurality of fuel cell generators or the plurality of IT loads; and

exhausting the air from the building structure via the air exhaust conduit.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the plurality of fuel cell generators or the plurality of IT loads are arranged in rows to form a plurality of fuel cell generators aisles between the rows of the plurality of fuel cell generators or a plurality of IT load aisles between the rows of the plurality of IT loads, the method further comprising:

providing the filtered air down the plurality of fuel cell generators aisles or the plurality of IT loads aisles; and

exhausting the air out a roof or a side of the building different from the side of the building structure the air inlet conduit draws the air in from.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein:

a first portion of the aisles between the rows of the plurality of IT loads are intake aisles configured to receive the air from the air inlet conduit, the intake aisles having no outlet to the air exhaust conduit;

a second portion of the aisles between the rows of the plurality of IT loads are outlet aisles configured to exhaust the air to the air exhaust conduit, the outlet aisles having no inlets to the air inlet conduit; and

consecutive aisles are alternatively intake aisles and outlet aisles, the method further comprising;

providing the air entering the building structure passes from the air inlet conduit, down the intake aisles, across the plurality of IT loads, down the outlet aisles, out the air exhaust conduit, and out of the building structure.

28. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one of:

the plurality of fuel cell generators and the plurality of IT loads are laterally separated and are located on a same floor of the building structure, or the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a first floor of the building structure and none of the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a second floor of the building structure, and the plurality of IT loads are located on the second floor and none of the plurality of IT loads are located on the first floor is the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a first floor of the building structure and none of the plurality of fuel cell generators are located on a second floor of the building structure, and the plurality of IT loads are located on the second floor and none of the plurality of IT loads are located on the first floor, the method further comprising;

controlling access to the first floor and the second floor by different security protocols; and

paging a security team, wiping data, writing-out master boot sectors, triggering a local electromagnetic pulse, shutting down a server, or shutting down power in response to a security violation on the first floor or the second floor.

29. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

converting enthalpy of the plurality of fuel cell generators process exhaust stream to work energy; and

converting the work energy to power for the plurality of IT loads.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the enthalpy of the process exhaust stream is converted to the work energy at least in part by a turbine coupled to a generator, a reciprocating heat engine, a Stirling engine, thermoelectric devices, or pyroelectric devices.

31. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the plurality of IT loads and the plurality of fuel cell generators occupy more than 95% of a usable space in the building structure.

32. The method of claim 18, wherein the cooling device and a respective one of the plurality of IT loads are located in a same cabinet of a modular fuel cell system enclosure.