Waste cold recuperation in fuel cell based power generation systems for datacenters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12402278-B2
Application number	US-202218065254-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 13, 2022
Priority date	Dec 13, 2022
Publication date	Aug 26, 2025
Grant date	Aug 26, 2025

Abstract

Examples described in this disclosure relate to waste cold recuperation in fuel cell based power generation systems for datacenters. An example waste cold recuperation system includes a liquefied gas storage for supplying liquefied gas as a coolant to cool a first set of compute resources configurable to operate in a first cryogenic environment. The system is configurable to supply at least some of the vapor phase of the liquefied gas as a coolant to cool a second set of compute resources configurable to operate in a second cryogenic environment, resulting in the at least some of the vapor phase of the liquefied gas becoming a super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied gas. The system is configurable to supply the super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied gas as fuel to fuel cells for providing electrical power to a datacenter load including compute resources configurable to operate in a non-cryogenic environment.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A waste cold recuperation system comprising:
a liquefied gas storage for supplying liquefied gas as a coolant to cool a first set of compute resources configured to operate in a first cryogenic environment within a first temperature range from a first temperature value to a second temperature value higher than the first temperature value, resulting in at least some of the liquefied gas becoming a vapor phase of the liquefied gas;
wherein the waste cold recuperation system is configured to supply at least some of the vapor phase of the liquefied gas as a coolant to cool a second set of compute resources configured configured to operate in a second cryogenic environment within a second temperature range from a third temperature value to a fourth temperature value higher than the third temperature value, wherein the third temperature value is equal to or higher than the second temperature value, resulting in the at least some of the vapor phase of the liquefied gas becoming a super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied gas; and
wherein the waste cold recuperation system is further configured to supply at least some of the super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied gas as fuel to fuel cells for providing electrical power to a datacenter load including compute resources configured to operate in a non-cryogenic environment, wherein the liquefied gas storage is coupled via a first segment of a vacuum-insulated cryostat to the first set of compute resources, wherein the first set of compute resources is coupled via a second segment of the vacuum-insulated cryostat to the second set of compute resources, and wherein the second set of compute resources is coupled via a third segment of the vacuum-insulated cryostat to a pipe for supplying the super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied gas to the fuel cells.

2. The waste cold recuperation system of claim 1 , wherein waste cold is related to latent heat associated with a change in the form of the liquefied gas from a liquid phase to a vapor phase.

3. The waste cold recuperation system of claim 2 , wherein the waste cold is further related to sensible heat associated with a heating of the vapor phase of the liquefied gas to the super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied gas.

4. The waste cold recuperation system of claim 1 , wherein the liquefied gas storage is configured as a vacuum-insulated housing.

5. The waste cold recuperation system of claim 1 , wherein the waste cold recuperation system is further configured to dynamically control an amount of the liquefied gas being supplied as the coolant in order to ensure a sufficient amount of fuel is being supplied to the fuel cells for providing the electrical power to the datacenter load including the compute resources configured to operate in the non-cryogenic environment.

6. The waste cold recuperation system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of compute resources comprises at least quantum computing resources, and wherein the second set of compute resources comprises at least complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) computing systems.

7. The waste cold recuperation system of claim 1 , wherein the first temperature value ranges between 20 kelvin to 77 kelvin and the second temperature value ranges between 77 kelvin to 100 kelvin.

8. The waste cold recuperation system of claim 7 , further comprising a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) system, which is also cooled using waste cold.

9. A method for operating a waste cold recuperation system for recovering energy from liquefied gas, the method comprising:
supplying the liquefied gas to a first set of compute resources configured to operate in a first cryogenic environment within a first temperature range from a first temperature value to a second temperature value higher than the first temperature value, wherein the liquefied gas is supplied as a coolant to cool the first set of compute resources, resulting in at least some of the liquefied gas becoming a vapor phase of the liquefied gas, and wherein a liquefied gas storage is coupled via a first segment of a vacuum-insulated cryostat to the first set of compute resources configured to operate in the first cryogenic environment;
supplying at least some of the vapor phase of the liquefied gas to a second set of compute resources configured to operate in a second cryogenic environment within a second temperature range from a third temperature value to a fourth temperature value higher than the third temperature value, wherein the third temperature value is equal to or higher than the second temperature value, wherein at least some of the vapor phase of the liquefied gas is supplied as a coolant to cool the second set of compute resources, resulting in the at least some of the vapor phase of the liquefied gas becoming a super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied gas, wherein the first set of compute resources configured to operate in the first cryogenic environment is coupled via a second segment of the vacuum-insulated cryostat to the second set of compute resources configured to operate in the second cryogenic environment, and wherein the second set of compute resources configured to operate in the second cryogenic environment is coupled via a third segment of the vacuum-insulated cryostat to the hydrogen fuel cells; and
supplying at least some of the super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied gas as fuel to fuel cells for providing electrical power to a datacenter load including compute resources configured to operate in a non-cryogenic environment.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein waste cold is related to latent heat associated with a change in the form of the liquefied gas from a liquid phase to a vapor phase, and wherein the waste cold is further related to sensible heat associated with a heating of the vapor phase of the liquefied gas to the super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied gas.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the liquefied gas storage is configured to store the liquefied gas, and wherein the liquefied gas storage is configured as a vacuum-insulated housing.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first set of compute resources comprises at least quantum computing resources, and wherein the second set of compute resources comprises at least complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) computing systems.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first temperature value ranges between 20 kelvin to 77 kelvin and the second temperature value ranges between 77 kelvin to 100 kelvin.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the waste cold recuperation system further comprises a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) system, and wherein the method further comprises cooling the SMES system using waste cold.

15. A waste cold recuperation system comprising:
a first set of compute resources configured to operate in a first cryogenic environment within a first temperature range from 20 kelvin to 77 kelvin;
a second set of compute resources configured to operate in a second cryogenic environment within a second temperature range from 77 kelvin to 100 kelvin,
wherein liquefied hydrogen is supplied as a coolant to cool the first set of compute resources, resulting in at least some of the liquefied hydrogen becoming a vapor phase of the liquefied hydrogen, wherein at least the vapor phase of the liquefied hydrogen is supplied as a coolant to cool the second set of compute resources, resulting in the vapor phase of the liquefied hydrogen becoming a super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied hydrogen, and wherein the super-heated vapor phase of the liquefied hydrogen is fed as fuel to hydrogen fuel cells for pr

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Nagimov Ruslan
• Alissa Husam A
• Monroe Mark Alan
• James Sean M

Classifications

• H05K7/20381

  Thermal management, e.g. evaporation control · CPC title

• H05K7/20372 Primary

  Cryogenic cooling; Nitrogen liquid cooling · CPC title

• H05K7/20009

  using a gaseous coolant in electronic enclosures (in cabinets of standardized dimensions H05K7/20536; in server cabinets H05K7/20709; in vehicle electronic casings H05K7/20845; in power control electronics H05K7/2089; in displays H05K7/20954) · CPC title

• H01M2250/10

  Fuel cells in stationary systems, e.g. emergency power source in plant · CPC title

• H01M8/04776

  at auxiliary devices, e.g. reformer, compressor, burner · CPC title