This is an awesome idea by the way. I work in the energy industry and haven't heard about anything like this.
Just curious, it seems like with prior art, MDI would not have exclusive rights to the motor, right? Also their Wikipedia page says that they are currently using a design that was patented in 1990. Did you abandon this idea because of patent issues, or was it merely the lack of access to a proven/tested motor that stopped you?
It was getting reasonably efficient compressed air motors of decent size. The MDI docs claim they do about 50hp (or about 37kW). You'd probably want five or ten 'units' at that level (assuming the data center is 10 or 20MW like the ones Apple, Facebook, and Amazon have built).
You can of course run an existing steam engine on air pressure (I've done that with models) but they are optimized for a higher static pressure than the MDI engines target.
Just curious, it seems like with prior art, MDI would not have exclusive rights to the motor, right? Also their Wikipedia page says that they are currently using a design that was patented in 1990. Did you abandon this idea because of patent issues, or was it merely the lack of access to a proven/tested motor that stopped you?