Honda’s growing old hydrogen gasoline cells get new life in knowledge middle

Honda bailed on the Readability — its solely hydrogen-powered automobile within the U.S. — however the automaker hasn’t give up on gasoline cells.

That’s the message Honda despatched with a peculiar announcement as we speak: It’s placing some outdated Readability gasoline cells again to work, combining them right into a backup energy system for its knowledge middle simply south of Los Angeles.

That is only a “proof of idea,” Honda instructed TechCrunch, however it goals to commercialize the tech and sees potential purposes past serving to knowledge facilities hold the lights on.

The used gasoline cell methods in Honda’s backup-power demonstration as soon as powered leased Clarities (through an electrochemical response that mixes hydrogen and oxygen to generate electrical energy). Honda retired these used gasoline cells for transport, however they apparently nonetheless work nicely sufficient to drive its server farm in case of an influence failure. Beforehand, Honda relied on diesel for backup energy on the facility. (Honda mentioned it makes use of this specific knowledge middle to “securely keep and entry its proprietary knowledge,” as a result of “automotive design is knowledge intensive.”)

It’s good to listen to that Honda discovered a use for its outdated gasoline cells, however crucially, this demonstration isn’t as environmentally pleasant because it might be. The corporate instructed TechCrunch that it isn’t solely utilizing inexperienced hydrogen within the pilot, which suggests at the least a few of it was generated through fossil fuels.

That is the difficulty with utilizing hydrogen to generate electrical energy: Gas cells accomplish that whereas spitting out solely water and warmth as exhaust, however they’re nonetheless not directly pollutive if that hydrogen comes from soiled sources (as most hydrogen gasoline does). Correcting this calls for an entire lot extra inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing, on high of no matter infrastructure is required to ship the hydrogen. This is the reason some automakers don’t imagine in the way forward for hydrogen-powered automobiles; they argue it’s merely an excessive amount of work to go that route.

However! Honda nonetheless believes in hydrogen-powered automobiles. The truth is, this demonstration can be sort of an advert for Honda’s next-generation gasoline cells, which the corporate developed with Normal Motors.

As Honda tells it, the next-gen gasoline cell methods will energy its upcoming hydrogen-powered car, which is “primarily based on the Honda CR-V” and is due in 2024.

Honda additionally plans to make use of these new gasoline cell methods for backup energy because it scales the tech. Which means this effort gained’t be as round, if in any respect, when it’s commercialized. But, on the upside, Honda mentioned it intends to solely use inexperienced hydrogen when it commercializes the backup-power items.

Past knowledge facilities, Honda added that it’s contemplating different purposes, together with “peak shaving.” This implies Honda thinks industrial clients may use its mills at peak instances, when electrical energy is priciest and grids are strained.

Honda mentioned it goals to develop its proof of idea right into a “new enterprise mannequin.” But, the pilot can be a handy manner for the corporate to speak up its new gasoline cells. As battery-electric automobiles permeate the U.S. market, Honda has an curiosity in retaining hydrogen in headlines.