A Startup Wants to Power Data Centers With ‘Supercritical’ Carbon Dioxide

A new company has a plan to make the dirty gas turbines powering data centers more efficient: liquid carbon dioxide.

American Supercritical came out of stealth Wednesday, announcing $8 million in funding. It wants to retrofit inefficient gas turbines that many data centers rely on for power with units that can generate more power, without adding more emissions (though the gas-fired turbines will continue to emit carbon pollution). The technology can also theoretically be used on a wide variety of energy sources at a time when power demand is skyrocketing.

“We want to start with gas turbines but eventually expand beyond that,” says cofounder Simon Shuham.

Most large gas-fired power plants in the United States use an array of heat engines in what’s known as a combined-cycle process: First, turbines generate electricity from burning compressed air and natural gas, then a separate engine uses the hot exhaust to make...

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