Mesa Natural Gas Solutions leverages natural gas to research COVID-19
Natural gas is being used to fuel computing modules assisting in the development of treatments for COVID-19.
Generators provided by Mesa Natural Gas Solutions are being fueled by natural gas that might otherwise be flared. That natural gas is fueling the electricity supply for computing modules owned and managed by Crusoe Energy Systems. The modules provide resources to a computing system for life-science research from Stanford University called Folding@Home Consortium, which allows researchers to remotely utilize Crusoe’s computational resources for the vaccine search and discovery process, according to a news release from Mesa.
“We jumped at the opportunity to assist in researching COVID-19,” Scott Gromer, president and CEO of Mesa Natural Gas Solutions, told American Gas. “Because of the military/veteran culture at Mesa, it’s natural that our management and employees want to respond and help out in a situation like this. Mesa is fortunate to be in a position where we can actually help research ways to fight this virus, so donating our resources was an easy decision.”
Mesa was started by former U.S. military members in 2014, and many in its workforce are veterans.
Crusoe recently launched a new protein-folding simulation project specifically targeting vaccines and therapeutic antibodies for COVID-19, and the project requires large amounts of electricity for the computations, the company said.
Mesa’s contribution of donated power-generation resources allows Crusoe to double the scale of its existing protein-folding program. Mesa’s generators are also powering some of Crusoe’s graphic-processing units supporting therapy and cure research for COVID-19.
Gromer said it’s important for the private sector to help out in tough situations like the pandemic.
“There are a lot of great companies that have refocused their efforts to contribute to this fight, and we are happy to be one of those companies in the power generation industry,” he said.