Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi and welcome to the Consulting Specifying Engineer podcast. I'm your host, Anna Steingruber, joined today by Patricia Nzioka, the Marketing and Strategy Director for Data Centers at Cummins. In today's episode, we're going to talk all about the alternative energy source HBO and why the D.C. industry should be interested in it. HBO, also known as hydro treated vegetable oil, is a renewable fuel made from waste vegetable oils and animal fats.
HBO has a similar grade and quality to traditional diesel, but with up to 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Here today to discuss HBO's use and its benefits more in depth is our guest, Patricia Nzioka. Patricia is the Marketing and Strategy Director for Data Centers at Cummins. She has over 17 years of experience in the power generation industry and is responsible for the enabling and marketing of fit for market solutions that meet the ever evolving needs of the data center industry.
One of her main areas of focus is on low carbon technologies that will enable environmental and economic sustainability while addressing emerging gaps in the grid infrastructure. Patricia holds a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University and an MBA from the University of Minnesota. That's a lot and all very impressive. Welcome, Patricia.
Before we begin all of our more technical questions, can you tell me how you ended up working for Cummins?
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Sure. It was an interesting way that I ended up at Cummins. I met some people at an event that I attended while in college.
The event was National Society for Black Engineers.
Now, my background is electrical engineering, so I had limited interest in what I saw as a company that focused on mechanical engineering.
But a few conversations with folks from Cummins, some research on my end, a visit to their facility, and I was sold. And Anna, here I am 17 years later.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Well, we're glad that you're here so that you can now be talking to us on this podcast and that you have all of this experience with them. So to get into hbo, can you explain to people who might not be familiar with it what HBO is?
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Certainly hvo, which stands for Hydra Treated Vegetable Oil because it is created through a hydro treatment process, is a renewable diesel fuel and it's produced from the renewable feedstocks, which could consist of vegetable oils or animal fats.
Chemically, HVO is like petroleum diesel, actually nearly identical in its performance, and in some ways it's actually better in terms of standards. HVO meets the definition of the standard for paraffinic fuels, and they have different standard measures. In Europe, it would be en15940.
And basically what that means is that they contain no sulfur or Aromatics, they burn cleaner.
I do want to make a point of clarification, which is also often a point of confusion, that HBO is not the same as biodiesel. They are produced through different processes and they have a different chemical composition.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Thank you for that explanation. Could you explain why the D.C. industry should be interested in HBO?
[00:03:39] Speaker B: Sure. That's a question I get a lot today. The main driver beyond HVO adoption and why it has increasingly become attractive to data center operators is that it significantly lowers GHG emissions because of the renewable nature of the feedstock. HVO has a very low carbon content.
So as you mentioned, it can reduce GHG emissions by up to 90%.
So it makes it a viable, viable path for data centers who have set some very aggressive decarbonization goals to achieve them.
Now, there's probably someone listening who's asking, well, there are other fuel alternatives and technologies that can also reduce ghg. What makes HVO uniquely attractive? And that's a fair question.
I would say that there's several reasons why HVO is attractive or uniquely attractive versus other alternatives.
The first is that HVO fuel can be used with existing technology.
Right. We're talking about the diesel engine. It is tried and true technology and is often the preferred option for backup power for data centers. Right. And because of its really good performance.
Now most diesel engine manufacturers, certainly the case for Cummins, do not make any hardware software changes to the engine for it to run an HVO fuel. Right. You don't need to order a special configuration.
And in most cases it's compatible even with generators that were already previously purchased and installed at a site. So from a technology readiness maturity, that barrier is not a factor.
The other reason is that HVO maintains the premium performance that we've all come to love that we get from diesel engines running on petroleum diesel. When I say all come to love, I mean the industry.
So in terms of transient performance, how the product operates in various environmental conditions, whether we're talking about altitudes, ambience, there is no real difference. Right. In fact, on the plus side, we see a benefit with hvo. There is a significant reduction in some constituents of tailpipe emissions, specifically particulate matter and smoke. Right. We've seen reductions in the field and in test of up to 60%.
We also see reductions in NOX emissions at light loads, but that reduction tapers off as we get to higher engine load factors. So with HVO fuel, when it comes to NOx, we continue to take advantage of engine technological advances that have reduced that over time. And after treatment technologies that can help reduce that by up to 90%. Also where we see a minimal trade off in the performance with HVO fuel is in its energy density.
And that can translate to a slight power decrease, which is often negligible because of the way generator sets are configured.
It could also lead to an increase in fuel consumption to the tune of 3 to 5%.
The third way, or the third reason why HVO is attractive is the ease of application.
From an application perspective, the transition of for somebody who's using petroleum diesel to HVO is extremely simple. It's a drop in fuel. So that means you can blend it in any ratio with petroleum diesel. So you can start.
If you have supply chain challenges, you can go back to diesel. So any ratio blending.
I mentioned that there are no hardware changes. So we're talking about no retrofits, no upfits, there's no impact to maintenance of the engine, no difference when it comes to maintaining stored fuel. Very similar to what we do with petroleum diesel.
So because of that, HVO makes for a very simple and very straightforward transition. And those are some of the reasons why that make HVO just uniquely attractive.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: So then, what role do you see HBO playing in the future of backup power for the D.C. industry?
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Well, there are several intertwined energy related challenges that the industry is trying to solve.
Let me start by saying that when it comes to backup power energy, we're trying to solve sustainability, we're trying to solve efficiency, response to some of the great constraints the industry seeing, cost, efficiency, et cetera.
To say first that HVO fuel, like any other fuel or technology, will not single handedly address all of these challenges.
In my view, HBO falls under what we refer to as a bridge solution.
So these are solutions that are bridging the gap between where we are today and where we aspire to be with zero carbon technologies.
So HBO enables us to make big strides towards decarbonization while we continue to innovate and bring the market to the next generation of power technologies.
Now that said, there are other fuels and technologies that can and will play a role in the bridge alongside hvo.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: And so what do you think is limiting the DC industry from higher rates of adoption?
[00:09:40] Speaker B: Well, we've seen adoption over the last three to five years in the industry and we expect to see increasing adoption in years to come.
A growing number of both global and regional data centers, especially North America and Europe, are pledging to start or increase the use of HVO in their data centers.
The main barriers that we see to HVO adoption are supply chain Related, the primary barrier being availability and the secondary barrier being cost. Right. HVO fuel is in limited supply in many markets, and where it's available, it tends to be more costly than petroleum diesel fuels. So the regions where we're seeing reliable levels of availability are markets where regulatory mandates, although today those are mostly targeted other industries, not necessarily data center, where those mandates are pushing for hvo and even more so where there are government incentives that have been placed around alternative fuels.
Now, the supply chain has increased significantly over the last few years, Right. And even moving forward, HVO producers are making investments to increase production. But today demand still outstrips supply at a global level. Right. There are projections that supply could double or triple the levels that we saw in 2022 by 2025, which is all welcome news. Right.
We also expect that as the supply chain matures and as adoption increases, that costs over time will become more affordable. Right. So while adoption has been limited, we expect to see an increase in years to come.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: So earlier you talked about HBO fuel as a bridge solution to decarbonization. Can you touch a little bit more on some other bridge solutions and on future power generation technologies that the industry can look forward to?
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Certainly, this is a broad topic and one I have a lot of interest in, so I'll break it down into bridge and longer term. Right? So in terms of what we call the bridge solutions, there are other alternative fuels like renewable natural gas, green hydrogen, etc. That can play a role when used in existing internal combustion engine technology, technology that's available today.
That said, their availability and the trade offs and performance challenges with storage, et cetera, all need to be understood and accommodated, Right?
Beyond alternative fuels, we also have technologies like batteries that can also play a role in the bridge. Right? Batteries can help to store and dispatch renewable grid energy.
When we look longer term, there are ongoing investments towards innovation in newer technologies like PAM fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells.
And the benefit of these technologies is that they not only enable higher levels of GHG emissions reductions, but they also eliminate exhaust emissions.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: So the innovation is happening.
Other enabling ecosystem investments like hydrogen production and distribution are happening.
We are learning from early deployments and pilots, but we're still some ways away, right, from seeing rollout and adoption at scale. Hence the need for bridge solutions like hvo, which we wanted to highlight today.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Of course. Thank you. I think that those are all of our real serious questions that we have. But before we leave, one more kind of fun one for you, Patricia. How do you fuel yourself in the morning's coffee or tea?
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Oh, definitely tea. I enjoy milk tea, no sugar.
I grew up in a part of the world where tea drinking is a big part of the culture. So I picked up tea drinking and continued to enjoy it.
The weird twist to that is that my father was actually a small scale coffee farmer. So there you go.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: So you just had to rebel a little bit and become a tea drinker?
[00:14:40] Speaker B: I. I had to. Although nobody in our family really was a coffee farmer. A coffee drinker, including my father who was the farmer.
Tea is just, like I said, big part of the culture where we come from. So we all picked that up.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Well, that's awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today, Patricia.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Thanks for having me, Anna. Bye.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: And again, this has been the Consulting Specifying Engineer podcast. For any more resources on HBO or other alternative fuel sources, please check out our website, www.csemag.com. thank you for listening and we really hope you enjoyed today's episode. We'll catch you next time.
