Can a technology requiring substantial renewable electricity still deliver a superior economic outcome?
At Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT), we believe the answer deserves careful examination.
Our proposed 20 MW Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT) Trigeneration System is being developed to address a fundamental challenge facing AI data centres: the need for reliable electricity, efficient cooling and sustainable resource management.
Conventional approaches often evaluate electricity generation, cooling, energy storage and carbon management as separate systems.
CRT proposes a different approach: integrate these functions within one thermodynamic system.
The concept combines:
- Dispatchable electricity generation using recycled methane.
- CO₂ capture and conversion back into methane using hydrogen-rich syngas and renewable hydrogen.
- Recovery of useful heat from gas engines and methanation.
- Absorption chilling to support data-centre cooling.
- Recovery and reuse of process water.
- Methane storage for long-duration energy resilience.
What does the engineering tell us?
CEWT has been reviewing actual equipment performance data from Clarke Energy and preliminary syngas data from Linde.
Clarke Energy’s proposed Jenbacher configuration comprises five 4.5 MW gas engines, providing:
22.5 MW of installed electrical generation capacity
46.2% electrical efficiency
21.84 MW of recoverable thermal energy at full load
These figures demonstrate why electricity-only comparisons can overlook substantial opportunities for thermal integration.
The methanation process provides an additional potential source of recoverable heat.
What about the renewable electricity requirement?
We recognise that converting renewable electricity into hydrogen, then methane, and finally electricity involves significant energy losses.
CRT does not eliminate these thermodynamic losses.
However, electricity conversion efficiency is only one measure of an integrated energy system’s performance.
The relevant question is:
Can the combined economic value of firm electricity, useful heat, cooling, carbon recycling and water recovery outweigh the additional renewable electricity and equipment costs?
Our preliminary comparative financial models indicate promising potential for integrated CRT trigeneration relative to conventional configurations.
We are now updating those models using vendor-specific equipment performance, reconciled material and energy balances, and consistent financial assumptions.
The objective is to establish a transparent comparison between Business as Usual (BAU) and CRT, based on equivalent reliability, energy demand and cooling requirements.
A different approach to sustainable infrastructure
We believe future AI data centres should be evaluated as integrated energy and resource systems—not simply as consumers of electricity.
Renewables provide the primary energy.
Energy storage provides flexibility.
Carbon recycling offers a potential route to dispatchable power and long-duration chemical energy storage.
Heat and water recovery can improve resource utilisation across the entire facility.
The future of sustainable data-centre infrastructure may depend not only on generating more renewable electricity, but also on integrating energy, carbon and water flows more intelligently.
Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT)
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