Friday is here, and the 'A Taste of Science for the Weekend' corner is back — number 77.
This time: the fascinating connection between jet engines, supersonic aircraft, and data centers.
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One of the byproducts of the artificial intelligence revolution is data centers.
They're sprouting up like mushrooms after rain all over the world, trying to satisfy our insatiable hunger for computing power.
These data centers require enormous amounts of electricity to operate, and connecting to the national power grid involves expanding generation capacity, upgrading infrastructure, and years of regulatory processes.
To accelerate things, tech companies are building small power plants within their data center campuses, effectively bypassing the national grid altogether.
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At the heart of many of these small power plants beats an interesting engine — a jet engine with its fan removed and a generator attached in its place, converting the engine's rotation into alternating current.
The choice of aircraft engines is no coincidence.
These engines are designed to deliver maximum power while remaining as compact and lightweight as possible, and they reach peak output very quickly after startup.
These advantages make them easy to transport to data center sites and fast to bring online.
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And this is where the problem arises.
A jet engine is designed to operate while moving at high speed, at an altitude of roughly 35,000 feet and a temperature of minus 50 degrees.
These engines need oxygen to function, since their operating mechanism is based on compressing oxygen and fuel and igniting them inside the combustion chamber. The aircraft's forward motion rams air into the engine, and at such low temperatures the air is dense enough to allow the engine to operate efficiently.
When forced to operate on the ground in places like Texas, the air is stationary and must be drawn into the engine, and temperatures can sometimes reach 40°C. At that temperature the air expands in volume and no longer provides what's needed for proper combustion, forcing the engine's output down by several tens of percent.
To solve the problem, enormous quantities of water are injected into the engine to cool the incoming air.
This solution is cumbersome and wasteful: the water must be purified of minerals and salts to prevent scale buildup and engine erosion, and it is expelled with the combustion exhaust and cannot be recycled. The result is that data centers need not only electricity but also large amounts of water and a purification system, which limits the regions where they can be built.
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A company called Boom has been developing a jet engine for a supersonic aircraft in recent years.
They have now announced an adapted version of the engine for data center power generation, with which they hope to solve the existing problems.
A supersonic aircraft collides with air at such high speed that the temperature of the compressed air can reach 70°C. For this reason, the engine's design is based on special materials and structures capable of withstanding exceptionally high temperatures and pressures over many consecutive flight hours without cooling.
Using such an engine for power generation would allow it to operate at full efficiency even in hot climates, with no need for water cooling whatsoever.
The company hopes that practical deployment in data centers will both generate revenue to fund continued development of the supersonic aircraft, and provide extensive real-world test hours for the engine.
First customers have already signed agreements with the company, and deliveries are expected to begin in 2027.
For the planet and the climate, this is certainly welcome news — and let's hope this solution becomes the standard, at least until truly clean energy sources are found.
Shabbat Shalom 😊
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